The Daily News WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28. WHERE'S THE MONEY COMING FROM?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8057, 28 February 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28. WHERE'S THE MONEY COMING FROM?

Well indeed might the ratepayers of New Plymouth ask, with Or. Collis, whore the money is to come from to meet the engagements into which the Now Plymouth Borough Council seems to hurl itself with a recklessness burn of indifference. We have been here long enough to realize that everything is far from well with tho Borough management, but unfortunately for the ratepayers and ourselves, ii. has been almost impossible to get at the exact position of affairs, owing to the Star Chamber methods adopted by the Council in dealing with the expenditure of publio moneys. Practically all the important business is transacted by the Council sitting as a Works Committee, and from these

meetings the Press is rigorously excluded. Is it any wonder that the public are in almost complete ignorance of the seriousness of the burden 'they are shouldering 1 What is done cannot be undone, but it is absolutely necessary that the pusillanimous and reckless career pursued by the Council must be checked ere the ratepayers have become hopelessly involved At Monday's Council meeting an instance of the recklessness with which the Council is prepared to further impoverish the town was aiibrdeil. The Electric Lighting Committee recommended that some £llOO worth of material be acquired for further installations. Except for the protest of one Councillor, the report was adopted almost unanimously, the Council refusing to refer the matter to a finance committee, in order to ascertain liow the expendi-

ture is to be met. With. Councillor Collis we do not say that the material is not required, but we do say that the Council has no right to mortgage next year's revenue, without some in vestigation of the position. We venture the opinion that not a single Councillor knows how the money is to be found, nor judging by their actions, are they in any wise exercised in mind over the matter. Fancy a Councillor, evidently with the approval of all but one of his col-leagues--for only one dissentient voice was raised affirming such a, ridiculous principle as this : " That be supported the adoption of the report because the money had not to be found this year. It could be provided for in the estimates, and the Council was simply wasting time now." Comment on such a declaration would be merely waste of time; it is sufficient for our purpose to point it out as an example of utter lack of business methods tiiat pervades the Council. From Councillor Collis we have been able to procure a copy of the type-written statement of receipts and expenditure on the general mid loan account placed on the Council table on the 4th January of this year. We venture to assert that were the Councillors as conversant as they should be with the extremely unsatisfactory position therein revealed, they would hesitate before rushing headlong into the financial slough in which they are almost bogged. It is obviously impossible to deal exhaustively with the report in this article, and we shall surtico with but a brief examination of the position of the loan account. Of the £90,000 loan raised about the end of 1002, £29,000 was appropriated for conversions, .£30,000 for waterworks and electriclight, £IB,OOO for streets, £ 10,000 for drainage, and .£BOOO for baths. Baths, streets, and drainage may be laid aside meantime, but the ratepayers would do well to put on their thinking caps, and quietly figure out what apparent adequate return they have got for the expenditure of the large sums expended on these works. Of the £90,000 amount earmarked, j£24,000 was set aside for waterworks, and for electricity. It is now a matter of history that the estimates for these works were all at sea, and it was found necessary to borrow another £7OOO this year to complete them- so the ratepayers were led to believe. Of the latter amount £i)100 was apportioned for wuterwoiks,and f'iJOOO for electricity. From the coit of the waterwoiks tunnel it was decided to charge £2IOO to the electric lighting account. Working these figures out, it shows that

£25,000 of the £37,000 loan moneys was appointed for waterworks and £ 12,00(3 for electricity. The amount expended or for which liability had been incurred on the waterworks at Ulst December last was £23,385, the two loans having been over-expended by £385. That is had enough, but the position with regard to the electric lighting is inlinitely worse. At the 3 I st. December last the £12,000 for this work had been over-expended to the amouot of £1,905. in addition to that there are Brush Company extras, amounting to about £ISOO, to he paid for, and £1,1!!!! voted on Monday night for additional material, biinging the total expenditure on the ole-:ti ic lighting plant up to £ .6,838, or £1,838 over and above the amount of the two loans raised for the purpose. It is therefore clear that the Council was in debt over the electric light to the tune of £B,los—for which no definite provision had been made when it blindly voted an additional £1,1!)!) ou Monday night. The ratepayers have no guarantee even when this huge sum Iris been paid, that the extravagant bent of the Council will he satislied. Things have come to ' such a pass that unless some radical i change is made, and made immediately, tho whole of next year's revenue will be required to meet j interest anil permanent charges, and < will leave practically nothing out of i the general account for expenditure ou streets, for which at least £3,000 '

: is annually reciuii-ed. Tlie Mayor endeavored 'to draw a red-herring across the scent' when he pointed out tli-.it there was about £I,OOO available from the drainage account, inferring that that amount could go to reduce the debt. Ijis Worship knows as well as we do that there is no possibility of even half that amount being available bofore the end of the financial year, and further, ho should know that that money t-umiot be used for any other inn-pose than that of drainage until the drainage scheme has been completed. To endeavor to lead councillors to believe that that money would be available for electric lighting or other ,

purposes was wrong, not only in fact, | but in principle. We purpose dealing in turn, with the many unfortunate features of the lean account, and also with the position of the general account, until the public have been siilltciently aroused to i-oali.se> the seriousness of the position. J It is imperative that the true no.siti.in should be clearly place! before the ratepayers as speedily as possible, and so far as is possible that is our mission. The present is no time for compliments, and while we shal endeavor to give praise when it is due, we shall not iiiin.su words in revelling to the public that which we believe calls for serious investigation, 1