THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1877.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 2, 13 April 1877, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1877.

A new light has been thrown upon tbe borrowing powers of County Councils by the manager of the Bank of New South "Wales, Hokitika, Ifc appears tbe "Westland County Council recently called tenders for its County account, tenderers being required to state the terras upon which an overdraft would be granted. The manager of the Bank ia question, declined, to tender, upon tbe advise ifc is to be presumed, that the Council bad no power to borrow, and from a perusal of section 155 of the Counties Act ifc will be seen that the. contention is sound. The clause referred to runs as fpllows :— " The County may in anticipation, of its current revenue from time to time borrow money from the Bank by way of overdraft;;, but the amount of such overdraft shall not afc any time exceed tbe total amount of the receipts of the County Fund clarinsj the year ending onthe 31st day of. March previous, not including any, moneys received by way of grant, from the General Government, or any moneys borrowed, or any moneys received for separate rates," We bave italicised the particular words of the clause upon which stress is laid for the conclusion arrived afc. It will be clear tbat as tbp County Councils were not -n existence until the latter part of December last, the borrowing powers cannot be legally expreised. It h certain, however, that very many of the County Councils of the Colony have secured overdrafts, and it may perhaps he ijß well to point out that by clause 156 of the same Acfc the members have made themselves individually liable to the Banks for the overdrafts secured. Ifc ia unlikely/ however, that any difficulty will arise from this breach of tbe law, but the question becomes of importance when considered in relation to the future, f tbe basis of borrowing is to be limited to the amount of the actual receipts of tbe County Fund during tbe year ending tbe 31st March pre- 1

vious, tb«n the County Councils will not be able to avail themselves of overdrafts until after 3lst March, 1878. This will prove a serious drawback so far as our own County is concerned, for some considerable, time must elapse before any revenue can be collected from the imposition of the proposed general rate, and the Government subsidies wi\l hardly mo?e tban keep the departmental pot boiliijg in the interim. Moreover, tbe Council will be shortly called upon to take over a liability of something like £.ldoo from tbe Road Board. Pf obably either the members of the County Council may see their way to pledge their individual credit for a temporary advance^ to the County Fund, or the County Bank may by limiting the overdraft, run the iis^ of the la\v.