The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, April 30, 1910. MOUTOA DRAINAGE BOARD MATTERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 833, 30 April 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, April 30, 1910. MOUTOA DRAINAGE BOARD MATTERS.

At last night’s meeting of the Moutoa Drainage Board the Clerk presented the annual balancesheet for the year ended March 31, 1910, which should be particularly interesting to the ratepayers in the district. The general account shows a debit balance of 15s yd. The receipts totalled ys 4d, being made up of rates ys 6d, rent £S 13s 4d, and sundries £2 6s 6d. The expenditure, including a debit balance from the previous year of rys yd, amounted to ,£164 2s 1 id, made up of office expenses ,£ll3 16s rod, printing and advertising £9 14s, law costs £5 6s 2d, refund of rates iod, maintenance and ' repairs /{,4os 2d, and sundries £4 2s 4d. The loan account opened with a credit balance of ns id, and ,£2IOO has been received from the Treasury during the year on account of loan, and £2O lys Od was realised from the sale of material, making a total ol ,£2121 8s iod. £*9ll *3 S of this was expended during the year, leaving the account in credit to the extent ot ,£143 15s id. The chief items ol expenditure were labour etc ,£1639 9s 2d, material and freight -£ 2 o y 1 5 s 3<E engineer £ 100, and interest ,£2l 2s 2d. The above figures are still subject to audit, but may be taken as correct. Up to the end of the year £3057 °f the loan ot ,£6OOO authorised by the ratepayers had been expended, thus leaving £2943 still available, which in the opinion of the Board’s engineer, Mr Thomas Ward, is sufficient to complete the work.

The dredge which has beeu hired Irom the Government for the work of constructing the main drain has not been working at all satisfactorily and a fitter was engaged from the Petone Workshops to thoroughly overhaul same. This has now been done and a fresh start was made yesterday morning when the working was iouud to be much more satisfactory, and the engineer is ol opinion that it it continues to perform as well as at present the whole work will be carried out with the balance of the loan money available. The dredge is capable of shifting 25 cubic yards of spoil per hour and the expenses of working same is about ,£2O per week.