The County Balance Sheet.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 29 August 1891, Page 2

The County Balance Sheet.

_* • A new order of things has taken the t place of the past. Public bodies are striving to place themselves upon a l sound financial footing instead of, as i in the days of Yogelism, endeavour- ■ ing to borrow every half-penny that \ they could. The new order is to be ' t approved of, as not merely being wiser, but as being more honest. • Loans have to be re-paid, and the 1 interest causes a very heavy drain upon the annual income, which new settlers have to provide as well as the older ones, but, and this is the . marked distinction, the older settlers ■ will have had the expenditure of the loans. In the case of the Manawatu County Council we have nothing to find fault with as it now stands. The unfair backing out of the . General Government of their promise, under the Eoads and Bridges Construction Act, led the Council, to enter upon works which, to complete, crippled their finances most injuriously, and led them to incur a 1 very large and exceedingly expensive i liability to their bankers. The ; Council wisely agreed that all this i was to be altered, and the balance i sheet shows how well the Chairman, i Treasurer, and Councillors have worked together to effect it. The s combined revenue permits a credit balance of £713 being shown. The • separate accounts permit of this being done, the Tram working account , showing badly with a debit of £2239. : However, with this amount on the : wrong side, owing to the fact of the Government having allowed the Act, , we have mentioned, to be altered so : prejudicially to those who had taken i advantage of its first introduction, : still permits the assets of the County i to be shown as £2778 to the good. There is one particularity in the Balance-sheet that deserves some comment, and that is the statement of the public debt. This is shown as being the total of the whole of the loans raised, or a sum of £5761, which is not a fact by any means, as each loan was raised at a different date, and the yearly sum paid is so much for interest and so much off the debt, the calculations being that in so many years, by these annual payments, the whole loan and interest is wiped off. It is evident, therefore, that the total of the amounts borrowed do not, at the present time, represent the public debt of the County. It may be a trouble to work out the actual position year by year, but it will be further reassuring to the ratepayers to know that as each year passes by, so does the indebtedness of their County reduce. We had the pleasure of drawing attention to the sound financial posii tion of the Borough of Foxton, and it is most gratifying to notice that the public body with which we are

most intimately connected is travelling along in the same wise and prudent path.