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Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3929, 11 April 1929, Page 4

Goiun'itl: —The Geneva l Ac-, is the largest account and embraces pvtusUeally akl the bctivfiioe aNha .borough not especially enumerated in separate aeeovuVte, The Imps 1 !. Ham of expenditure is road maintenance, £1,278, an increase over last year of £242, a sum (Vfttliov more than the borough ean afford, but the exipendituvo of which has been albsolutely essential. The .sum of £327 has b een claimed and received from the Main .Highways Board as subsidy on main high l ways. The amount estimated for road maintenance at the beginning of the year was £9OO, subsidy being reckoned at £2OO. As Johnston St. and Russell St. have been recoated this year it is not anticipated that the subsidy this year ■will exceed last year’s esltima - te. The work of finishing off some of the footpaths that did not prove too good when handed over by the contractors a year or So back has been taken in hand, and .with the completion of ,Oook St. path this work will then all have been cleaned up. Other items of expenditure in this account are briefly as follows, maintenance, plant and tools, £97, street lighting £2Ol, repairs pound and cottage £29, dog registration, ranging, etc £62, health inspection £49, fire prevention £209 to the Fire Board, and £26 to the night watchman. .The swimbling baths show a deficit on the year’s working as was an'ticipated by many of those who had given the subject careful thought, in this instance £37, the expenditure amounting to £95 against receipts £SB. All water for the .baths has been supplied by the waterworks free of cost. On the receipts side license fees of ,all descriptions produce £416 and fees and permits £39; general rate and arrears £1,500, Government subsidy £lB7 10/-; rents £lO4, refund boundary road maintenance for two years £135, petrol tax £lO, leaving at the end of the year a debit balance of £296 against a .debit balance at the beginning of the year of £22.

•Statis'bies and Estimates: —A perusal of .the various schedules attached to the statement of .accounts reveals that the nett public debt stands at £68,522, an increase of £319. The .antecedent liability loan of £1,091 matures in August and a renewal loan is necessary for £l,'OSO, the balance beany paid out of revenue. Authority has been granted by the Local Bodies’ Loans Board to raise this sum for 10 years at per cent., with the .provision of a sinking fund of £7 19/- per pent, to extinguish the renewal loan at

/maturity. The next loan to mature is the drainage connection loan of £1,600, of which £6OO falls due in 1930. It mil be necessary for this ■amlount of principal to foe in hand by that time to aneeit the debentures when they fall due. The following year the balance (£1,000) of this loan matures. Up to now the interest on the loan has been paid by property owners who have borrowed the money to instal drainage in their premises, but the interest account is now £lO9 in debit and some effort will have to be Imiade to get this amount paid up. The matter of rates, both past and present, has been of great eon-

eern to the Council and ! to the ratepayers, and as has several times been! pointed out, the fall in the unimproved value of 'the borough in a piecemeal fashion is a contributing factor. In 1917 the unimproved rateable value of the borough was £101,150 while at the 31s't March, 1928, it stood at £95,508, a decrease of £5,612, which at 1/- in 'the £ represents £282. The latest figures from the valuation department for the year just ended (will be even lower than this as several property owners have secured reduced valuations during the past year, one property 'alone in Main St., having been reduced from £420 to £212 and so it will go on, 'the rest of the borough having to make up the loss by paying increased rates. The re-

valuation of 'the borough will undoubtedly even 'things up as between the various ratepayers themselves. Now I desire to draw attention to the large amount of rates outstanding. For the year 1925/26 £2l is outstanding, 1926/27, £95; 1927/28 £341; and 1928/29, £739j in all £1,196. This is a large suim and imusit be collected if the work of the borough is to be earned on. If the Council cannot collect its revenue works have to be held in abeyance. ,On the other hand by collecting these arrears, it will be possible to reduce the rates for the coming year by id to 1/- even mOney, whereas if ithe arrears are not dealt with it will be necessary to collect 1/2 in the £ this ioining year; in ; other words, the ones who do pay wli'll be required to pay for the one® who do no't pay. It is generally realised that in many cases it has been (sheer inability to pay that has brought about such a large sum outstanding; if the ratepayers do not have the money they cannot possibly pay; bu't still if they cannot pay the amount now outstanding they will have oven less chance of paying increased rates, which must be ifalie ease if the arrears are left to

run on unicollec'ted. It has been made quite clear that payment of rates will be accepted in almost infinitesimal sums ias instalments. The extra office work in dividing these small amounts up into the various interest accounts and so on is not minded in the least- The proposal by the Fox ton Hafibour Board to collect a Haibour rate over its district is Causing no little concern afmongst 'the various contributing bodies. The Board’s district comprises the following six local bodies, the capital rateable value being shown against each name: Manawatu Co-

uiily Council (.including Roiig'otea Town*Board, £40,512), £3,559,649; Kaiininga County Council, £4,711,267; Palmerston North Borough Council, £6,549,214; Feilding Borough Council £.1,476,576; Levin Borough Council £7TG,332;'Foxton Borough Council £286,431; a gross total of £17,299,409. The Foxton Harbour Ainendlnieiit Aclt,' 1917, provides that the maximum rate that may be levied on each of the Contributing bodies in fraction's of a penny in the £ is as follows: Manawatu County 1/B'tfo., Kairanga 'County l/24th., Palmerston N. Borough l/10th., Feilding Borough l/20th., Levin Borough l/l ! 2 : th., Fox'ton Borough 7/'Stirs. This maximum rate if all called up to-day, would produce £7,000. Working this out, for instance, say, on a £I,OOO levy by the Haibour .Board, the amounts to be paid by the various 'bodies is as follows: —■ManaWatu Counity £265, Kairanga County £ll7, Palmerston *N. £390, Feilding Borougli £44, Levin Borough £35, Foxton Borough £149. Considerable injustice would liowever, be done if the Board should decide to call up more revenue than it. actually required from year to year and a proposal of this nature would ibe strenuously opposed. In conclusion, gentlemen, .1 beg to •say that, considering the slack times experienced last winter, the financial aspect is riot so bad. The Council lias Succeeded in living entirely within its ineoime, minor excesses in one direction being coun-ter-balanced by economies in others. If, in spite of rum'ours, the mills can be kept going during the greater part of the coming winter, L much better conditions will prevail this time neXt year.

In conclusion, the Town Clerk thanked the Councillors personally and on behalf of the staff for the consideration extended at all times to the Council employees during the Council’,s term of office and he expressed the staff’s united appreciation of their efforts to discharge the onerous duties of their office.