HUTT RIVER BOARD.

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 15, 5 September 1929, Page 2

HUTT RIVER BOARD.

The Finance Committee presented the following report at. a recent meeting of the Hutt River Board: —L

We -liavt- made a full investigatoin of the Board's financial position, together with a careful estimate of the probable income and expenditure of the current year. As a result we recommend that a general rate of 7/50ths of a penny in the pound be struck on all classes and that the Special rates to be imposed on the three Glasses—l, 2, arid 3 —be in the proportion of 3, 2, 1 lespectively and bet assessed to yield amount" not less than the annual interest charges on each loan. Schedule I showing the estimates of Income and Expenditure for the year, and Schedule II indicating the rates to be struck .on'thv above basis, are submitted for tho Board's approval.

It will be seen that it has been possib*. to make a reduction in the Special rates equivalent to amounts ranging from. 2/6, downwards for. each £1,000 of Rateable Valuej'but t&at, it has . been , found necessary to increase thvGii'tral rate by 3/50tHs of a penny in tSc pound, representing a uniform, ineieaso of 5/f- for each £1,000 of Rateable Value. Your Committee regrets tho necessity to raise the General rate but i* convinced that such a step is in-iterative if the Board's work is Jiot to be hampered. It must not be overloo Vi- I that the rates levied . are very smiil v.v<il leave little margin for any oa- than routine work. For example, tho openditure for last year exceftJlsd the income by approximately £400/ the ( iffere-Nce being accounted fox by the additional expenditure of £358 on the iter.i ''Works' 7——this extra amount was entirely cue to the erection of'neeosf?ary boom .groynes—and a falling aif. of about £60, in the income from royalties. This. y<3ar special expenditure of £i,OOO at least has to be met for operations already commenced on the Waiwhetu River in connection with .'he .tidal basin and the deepening of the channel between the diversion training walls. . . ■■■'■'■'

Your Committee would like to see the gradual accumulation o.f a balance sufficient to meet special calls on its revenue for general, maintenance and the hypothecation of income from royalties to . meet capital expenditure for new works, land purchase, estuary reclamation and the like. We realize however, that such a step must be a gradual one and merely submit for tl>c Board's general information our viewpoint that1 .the /general rates struck should be such as_would be .sufficient, together with rents received, to cover the routine expenditure of the Board; Wo.aro strongly of,opinion that for the present the question.of a reduction in the rates is'secondary to the services the Board is bound to perform andthat | any application of the pruning Knife to the, revenue will seriously delay the time who'll active steps can be taken towards developing-the reclaimation of The, report was adapted. ' i, . • ■ . j .'...'