MUNICIPAL PICTURES AND GAS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1073, 8 March 1913, Page 3

MUNICIPAL PICTURES AND GAS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In some of my previous letters I have agitated for reduction of Municipal Picture prices and urged the necessity for improved films : I now propose to deal with the financial side of the business. I have been credibly informed that the first half-year showed a net profit of , £3OO. Verification of this statement will depend upon the Town Hall balance-sheet which should be produced at the end of the financial year. But there can be no doubt that the Municipal Picture theatre is a highly profitable concern and paying at least 20 per cent. This being so can Councillors explain why there is not one penny in reserve as a Town Hall fund? And where are the profits ? Are they credited with the general account or paid into the sinking fund for the gas works loan ? lam not an old identity in Foxton and am therefore somewhat ignorant concerning the details of the gas works investment but so far as I can sift the wheat from the tares I can discern that the ratepayers have been misled either by misrepresentation or through the economic and administrative inefficiency of trusted Councillors. But the present position is this : We have invested ,£II,OOO in the means for producing a highly useful commodity at a loss. And because interest and sinking fund are only payable from revenue we withdraw the entire profit from the Town Hall account leaving it without one penny of reserve to meet contingencies, such as in the case ot private competition reducing returns to less than, working expenses. What then ? Will the Councillors run the theatre themselves. Truly this is a practical illustration of taking “no thought of the morrow,’’ to say nothing of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.—l am, etc., Jas. G, Graham. Foxton, March 7th.