THE BOROUGH FINANCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 30 October 1907, Page 3

THE BOROUGH FINANCES.

The Town Clerk on Monday night presented to the Borough Council a return showing the estimated receipts and expenditure for the year ending 31st March next and the actual figures for the half-year ended on 10th October. In many cases the half-yearly period has earned more than half the receipts assessed for the twelve months—a very satisfactory state of affairs. In the following extracts from the return the

year's intimates are printed in parentheses. The actual reeeij)ts from Government subsidy were £330 5s ( £330); licenses under Licensing Act, £359 ( £355); licenses under borough by-laws and the Auctioneers Act, £197 4s Gd ( £400); rents of reserves, £278 8s Gd ( £520); reimbursements, streets, £GB 12s 8d ( £70); r«imbursemcnts, waterworks services, £7l Is Gd (£50); dog registration, £24 12s !)d (£120); rent of Town Hull, £9 Is ( £10); sundries, £1.14 19s (£50); baths, £8 15s Gd (£100); abattoirs, £IO6O 10s 5d ( £1500); library, £9l Gs 9d ( £200); electric light receipts, including £OOO street lighting, £l3lO Gs lid (£2000); cemetery, £9l 13s 4d (£100); special rate of lOd in the £, £"468 10s 8d (£2250); water rate, £lO3 5s ( £750); extra water supplies, £374 7s 7d (£11011); 10 per cent penalty on rates, £l9 2s ( £40): general rate, £1197 13s 4d ( £4725). Thus out of a total estimated revenue of £14,73G up to the end of March next £02415 13s 7(1, or nearly three-sevenths, has already been earned. And we. have to remember tint this is the half-year in which rates receipts are small. Tlie experience of all local bodies is that the ratepayers won't pay their rates until the prospect of a 10 per cent, penalty compels them to. Then, a<;.'.!n, the baths earnings will nearly all be in the present half-year, I and the dog-tax revenue should easily ]:'ach tlie estimate. Pleasing Features aiv the prospective surpluses in the abattoir and electric lighting departments.

| UntlVr the heading of expenditure, there is scheduled for the year £14,736,. and of this .CIM42 7s 5d has already been spent, or considerably more than half in the first half-year. How is it made up? Salaries, honorarium, advertising, audit, and general office expenses are about £3O over the halfway mark, but some of tiie items, such as audit CIS l(is Sd, and new typewriter £25 2s (id, will not recur, to the streets accounts labor and metal, £1024 10s, is just on the halfway mark; only £2O 17s 4d out of the year's appropriation of £4OO has been spent in concrete ing and channelling, and just over half of the £l5O vote for asphalting and tarring. Forage has cost £BS 3s Id out of the year's estimate of £l2O, and only £3 of the £35 water-cart vote was spent. Repairs to bridges ( £2B 2s) are already in excess of the £25 allocated, and ''plant, materials, and sundries," for which £35 was set aside, have absorbed £ll3 13s lOd, or £7B 13s lOd above the estimate. In the streets, then, out of £2824 provided for the year, oniy £1333 !>s Ud has already been spent. Upkeep of reserves absorbed £52 17s 6d (estimate for the year £80), and Town Hall upkeep £O3 I3s dd out of £l3O voted. Of £730 to be given in subsidies to the Hospital Board, Fire Brigade, Recreation Grounds, library, bands, and Western Park, £342 has been paid out. The abattoirs have taken only £670 13s 4d of the £ISOO provided for the year's general expenses, the library £54 lis 2d out of £2OO, and the cemetery £73 3s 6d out of £IOO. The heading "General" includes;— Dogs £6 2s 3d (estimate for the year £4O), bank interest and charges £1!)0 9s 6d ( £400), engineering £125 ( £250), engineer's assistant £l4 ( £2G)j_ Waiwakaiho bridge, no expenditure (£100), interest on

loans, including sinking fund £4352 10s (id ( £4100), elections £2l is 4d ( £35), general expenses on baths £!)7 lis 2d ( £105), promotion technical classes (£SO) no expenditure, contingencies £lO2 lis 7d (£417). Waterworks salaries, labor, upkeep, and material £559 7s Gil ( £720), street and Hall lighting £3OO (£000); electric light maintenance, £583 2s 2d ( £1075).

In the separate loan accounts £10,864 7s lid is shown as available at the beginning of the year, and there now remains a balance of £0632 1b Bd. The district fund account is overdrawn by £lßsl 4s 4d. The street improvement loan had £204 18s 3d to credit at 31st March last. There now remains only £3O 2s 3d, and this will be absorbed by the grading of Liardet street. There are credit balances in the waterworks loan of £2b3 7s Od, and in the drainage loan £494 16s lOd. The ebctric light loan, in the return, is shown us being slightly overdrawn, but this lias been altered by cancelling portion of an authorised order for goods. There is £OBB 15s worth of stock in hand for private lighting connections.