COUNTY MAY LOSE OVER £2000.

Shannon News, 16 May 1922, Page 2

COUNTY MAY LOSE OVER £2OOO.

IF OVERDUE RATES ARE NOT PAID

In announcing at the Horowhenua County Council meeting on Saturday that the annual meeting would take place on Wednesday, May 24, the County Clerk (Mr P. W. Goldsmith) referred briefly to the county finances, ne said it was very important that the Council should get in the balance of ii ates due by the end of June in order that these monies should earn the Government subsidy. If any .-rates remained unpaid then the subsidy, the maximum amount of which was £2500, would be lost, and could never be regained. Mr Goldsmith went on to say that at March 31, over £3OOO of general, rates were-owing, in addition, to £SOO or £6OO of special rates, but the general rates were the most important, as they carried the subsidy. These rates must therefore be secured by the Council. He would forecast his annual report ■ to thQ extent of saying that the Council would wind up the year with a £9OOO debit. That

would be their antecedent liability, for the liquidation of which they were empowered by the Act; to borrow. Of this amount £2OOO was in hand, and the balance, £7OOO, would be divided up in proportion to the amount owing by the- various ridings. Wirokine had the largest debt, £SOOO, but it had considerable assets, including £6OO :n loans, which would come back, also a portion of general rates. Cr. Monk, chairman, stated that the 10 per cent penalty on unpaid rates had been postponed from February till the end of March, but it had nothing to do with the amount of rates owing. Tlffeir position was such that they must not lose any portion of the subsidy, if at all possible. Though their debt of £9OOO looked big, if the rates had come in,' and allowance made for the purchase of the engineer’s house, lorry and engine, he believed the Council would have come out with a clean sheet.

In reply to Cr. Broadbelt, the chairman said the! 10 per cent penalty on

overdue rates was in operation