DRAINAGE BOARD.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4431, 23 June 1922, Page 3

DRAINAGE BOARD.

THE HAURAKI AREA. GOOD FINANCIAL POSITION. The balance-sheet of the Hauraki Drainage Board for the year ending March 31, 1922, was, presented by the clerk (Mr. J. E. Green) to a meeting of tihe Board at Turua yesterday. 'Contained in the balance-sheet were the following items'. General Account. —The receipts ineluded • General rates, 1921-22, £602 5s 2d; general rates, arrears, £l7l 19s 3d ; special rates, 1921-22, £445 7s 4d ; special rates, arrears, £99 12s 3d; sales of. materials, £5B 13s 6d: contributions to works, £l2 10s; instalment of subsidy from Government on first £5OOO loan, £lOOO ; Lands Department’s contribution to joipt drainage works, £595. The payments included an amount of £2115 l«s 2d for drainage works, cartage, and grading. General rates, 1921-22, outstanding were shown as £331 17s, and arrears on general rates outstanding £27 10s 3d; special rates, outstanding, £266 6s 9d, and arrears o£ special rates outstanding £l2 5s 2d. The clerk explained that the Board was in a good financial position. Over £2OO arrears of rates had been collected during the year. The total rates collected amounted to £l3OO. At March 31 there was an amount of £638 of general and special rates outstanding Since then, however, some additional rates had been paid. THE ANTECEDENT LIABILITY. A letter from the Bank of New Zealand, Thames, stated that in terins of the Local Bodies Finance Act, 1921, the balance of the Hauraki Drainage Board as at March 31, 1922, £l5B 193 lOd, was transferred to an account called Hauraki Drainage Board Antecedent Liability Account. No further operations were to be allowed on that account, and a fresh account under the old name had been opened on April 1. Interest would be collected half-yearly on the antecedent liability, and it was to be paid in on the operative account. “It is expected,” the letter continued, "that prompt steps will be taken to fund the antecedent liability, as permitted by the . Local Bodies Finance Act, by borrowing in terms of section 6 of the Act. Kindly advise me. what arrangements have been made or are proposed as to- clearance of the debt.’'’ As the new legal limit foi the current year was fixed at three fourths of the total revenue for the preceding year the bank asked flop a copy of the Beard's balance-shee.t, the resolution to borrow, an undertaking by. the clerk that the overdraft would be kept within the prescribed limit, and statistics concerning population, valuation. public debt, total rate, and to.tal amount of sinking fund. The clerk had replied that the Board would pay off the antecedent liability of £l5B 19s lOd in one payment out of the general account, and enclosed the information required. The Board’s position regarding its antecedent liability is clearly set out in a letter from the clerk to the Minister of Internal Affairs, stating that = the Board’s liability was shown to be £l5B 19s 16d, which was the amount of the actual overdraft at the banx on March 31. "But, as a matter of - fjact,”. the letter continued, "this was not the true liability, as there was a sum of £lOB lO.s 3d cash in hand on March 31, being the amount of. rates collected during the last two or three days of that month, and which was paid into the bank on April 2 and 3, so that the true amount of the antecedent liability, according to the Board’s books and balance-islheet, is £B5 12s Id. The Board proposes to pay this amount off in one sum out of its general account if the Board’s bankers will grant them the overdraft they are .allowed td have under the Local Bodies Finance Act; 1921. I have already applied to the Bank of New Zealand, Thames, for this, and if and when the same is granted this Board’s antecedent liability will be paid off immediately, and the Board has no other liabilities whatever on v its general account.”