COUNTY RATES UNPAID.

Shannon News, 16 November 1926, Page 2

COUNTY RATES UNPAID.

ONLY TEN PER CENT. IN HAND. CHAIRMAN'S,APPEAL FOE PROMPT PAYMENT. The prospH-t of having to hold up ' Horowhei.ua County public work owing to the slow -payment of rates, was : f oreshadowe 1 1 y the County Chairman (Mr Monk) on Saturday. With eightmonths of the financial year gone only ten per cent, of the rates have been paid. The chairnmn said the-Council was having great trouble in collecting the rates.this year. They had levied £22,000 (£13,691 general and £9256 special) of rates. The special rates, of -course, were just received and paid out again; as interest. Up to the present, with eight .mouths of the financial year gone, they hid only collected £14.64 in j o-eneral rate s and £787 special rates. I Ail at was having a disastrous effect on the finances. Instead of having the rates in hand they had to work' on a considerable overdraft at the Bank. There must )« ratepayers in thejCoun-_ ty who could pay their rates without financial strain and lie would ask that they do their inmost to assist by prompt payment, instead of waiting for the , expiry of the legal period. There had , been great delay in the payment of i the ( Main Highways Board's share of > the cost of the main highways. The work was done, the account went in, i and an inspection then had to be made, s There was no delay up to that point, ' but from the time the requisition went 1 in until paynent, was received there ' was dcigy. The general account had been carrying up to £SOOO for that \ and it was too much to ask the County [ to do. Unless the financial position improved the Council would\ have to seriously consider the closing down of some of the general-work.* With eight ; months of the maintenance period gone, they had only got -£I4OO in rates and i had paid £l2*'o of that in hospital levy 1 and a half-year's interest due in Sep- ■ tcmber. The position to-day was not ' an easy one an'd the ratepayers could | assist very much by prompt payment of rates. ', "A Very Poor Partner.' • Ci". Jensen said it was rather suri prising that this, year should -*be so . much different to other years. The ; Council should give notice of its inten- ; tion t-.i sue f ■:• rates. They must keep , on with the work as it would be shn- • ply ruinous to stop now- and let the ! work go back. "We have a very poor partner," said . Cr. Jensen, referring to the Highways Board. "They should '' pay their half cost within a reasonable [ time. We should not pay interest on ' their half of the money promised. Suppose we charge them interest." • Cr. McLea-iy: You Avill be lucky if you get it. * Cr. Jensen: It will make them realise our position. , Cr. Catley referred to dairy .farmers' difficulties. They were getting a Is 3d advance, but that had dropped'to Is. Some of '.hem had said they would not pay their lates until something was oone to the roads. , He referred to the amount of rates collected en the Ohau roads as an untance and the small proportion spent on them in maintenance He was not blaming the Engineer but the Council for not seeing that action. J was taken \vhon reasonable representa- ' tions were made. When farmers saw carelessness and slackness going on it was not surprising that they did not pay their races. The Engineei said many of the roads had 3iad their full allocation of maintenance money spent on them and the rates on those were not paid. In answer to the chair, Cr. Catley admitted that the Ohau West road, which he had quoted was an exception. ' The chairman said that surely the Council had done something for the money spent in the last eight months. The position was that unless mouey came in they would have to stop work. On some- roads on which the full - allocation had been spent, they might wonder, whether j anything had been done as a result of the bad weather; As a farmer hiimself, he was closely in touch with the financial stringency that had been referred to. He believed it would be found that the County rates were being left over, while 'the land tax would be paid before the end of the month. The County was giving, some social survive and was therefore deserving of consideration.