CHEAPER WATER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 680, 4 June 1929, Page 7

CHEAPER WATER

RATE HALVED FOR MARINE BOROUGHS ESTIMATES FOR YEAR ft is proposed by the North Sho; e Water Board, at its annua! meeting this afternoon, to levy a rate of one-farthing a thousand gallons for Lake Pupuke water supplied to residents of the marine boroughs. The finances of the board being in a sound position, the rate will be only half that of last year. THE board is empowered to levy not more than one penny a thousand gallons pumped from the lake during the preceding year. The quantity pumped for the year ending March 31, 1929, was 328,311,514 gallons, and on the basis of a farthing a 1,000 gallons, the revenue will be £341 19s lOd. The levy is payable on February 1, 1930.

The Devonport borough, which received 249,218,264 gallons, will be asked for £259 12s Id; Xorthcote, which used 36,900,250, is to pay £3B 8s 9d: and Birkenhead, to which was pumped 42,193,000 gallons, will be billed for £43 19s.

The board’s secretary, Mr. A. E. Wilson, stated that the current year started with a cash balance of £791 2s Sd in the bank, and the levy of one farthing would yield £341 19s lOd —a total of £1,133 2s 6d being available. The estimated expenditure is as follows, last year’s estimates being shown in parentheses: Salaries, printing, and stationery, £IOO (£100); by-laws, legal expenses, advertising, etc., £IOO (£100); lake cleaning, £3OO (£300); contingencies, £333 2s 6d (£145). The estimate of engineering reports, investigations, and technical advice is still under consideration. The certified balance sheet showed that the year 1928-29 started with a cash bank balance of £268 2s sd. Levies at the rate of one-halfpenny a 1,000 gallons yielded £5Ol 10s 6d from Devonport; £79 2s 7d from Northcote; and £96 10s 2d from Birkenhead, the total money available being £94s 5s Bd. Of this, £63 16s went in administration charges, £1 Is in legal fees, and lake-cleaning required £B9 6s. The balance to start the year 1929-30 was therefore £791 2s Bd. The balance sheet was adopted, and the estimates provisionally received.