The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13. THE BOROUGH FINANCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 362, 13 April 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13. THE BOROUGH FINANCES.

The statement 01 the borough finances presented by the Mayor on Monday evening discloses a healthy and sound condition of affairs Instead of ending the year with an overdraft of £lOll, as estimated, the overdraft is but £4ll. The result is all the more gratifying since none of the works was starved for funds. Indeed, in the case of the upkeep df the streets—labor, metal, asphalting, and tirring the estimates were exceeded by over £BOO. The electric lighting department was principally responsible for the improvement, the actual receipts being £4077, as against £4OOO estimated. The revenue from water supplies was greater by nearly £250 than estimated, and that from drainage fees £l3O. Several amounts were over-estimated, such as bank interest ( £124) and waterworks department (£150). The most satisfactory feature of the operations is the headway made by the electrical department. We gather from the return that the actual expenditure, which included payment of interest, was £3805, and the receipts £4977. The true position can only be arrived -at when particulars of stocks in hand, arrears, etc.. are available. It is perfectly plain, however, that the department is proving a very profitable concern and becoming a great asset to the town. With the proposed extensions made—and we do not fear that ratepayers will withhold the necessary authority—the revenue from the increased number of consumers, as pointed out by the Mayor, must afford relief to the ratepayers in the near future. With regard to the coming year, it is anticipated that an additional £4OO per annum will be required to meet the interest on the £BOOO loan recently raised to erect the Powdorham and Gill street bridges. The Mayor mentioned that a further sum of £3OO was required to purchase extra land for the latter. We hope the Council will not use any of the money authorised for the Powderham-street bridge to make up this extra amount. Ratepayers voted the £3OOO for the Powderhamstreet bridge in the belief that it would enable a full width bridge, or nearly so, to be constructed. Judging from the •way in which the; original plans have been hacked about and the work aires J - done, it looks as though we are going to have a Dridge oniy about seven feet w'der than the old narrow wooden structure. A\ e have no hesitation in saying that it would be a distinct breach of faith, and a huge mistake, if the Council scamped the work in this fashion and transferred the money to any other fund. If the £3OOO is not sufficient to enable a wider bridge, or culvert, than a 22ft one to be constructed, then it is a different matter. Our opinion is that the £3OOO is quite enough, or should have been, for the work. The contract price, was £1550. The foundations, which is an extra, will cost about £SOO, leaving nearly £IOOO for filling in. As the Council has .been offered and accepted spoil almost alongside the work at one penny a cubic yard, the filling in should not be an expensive matter. Even if the necessary easements cannot be obtained from the neighboring property-holders and we believe they could have been long ago if the Council had gone about the matter in a less blundering fashion—there would be enough money left to construct retaining walls, and so give a | full width bridge at what is destined to be an important portion of the business town. The plans at present being followed are totally inadequate, and we have no doubt that when ratepayers know of the curtailment that is going on they will object, and object strongly, just as they will object to the heavy cost of the foundation work, which should have been let as a part of the contract and not done as an extra. We must, however, leave this matter for the present. The Mayor, in his statement, said that f he large and increasing motor-car traffic required considerably more money to be spent o'n preparing the streets. Good streets, well formed, are an asset to any town, and are economical because of the relatively small cost of upkeep. For this reason, more than for providing special facilities for motor-cars, few ratepayers will object to the streets being placed in an efficient condition, though we must say that already a great many of our more important thoroughfares require little attention, thanks to the work done by the' staff during the nast year or so. The Mayor 'suggested a small loan for the purpose of extending the sewers and to complete the formation and metalling of important streets, "otherwise," he' said, "it will take many years to do the work out of revenue." We would like to see a schedule of the proposed work prepared before expressing an opinion on the proposal. To sanction a loan for additions to the electrical system is a payable proposition; to ineur a debt for practically unproductive works is quite a different mattsr, and one that can only be justified by special circumstances. We do not know at the moment whether thest special circumstances exist in regard to Mr. Tisch's proposed works.

NEW ZEALAND'S PROSPERITY. The prosperity of a country cannot be "LUiged 'by the col'tctive wealth of its inhabitants. The individual comfort of the people, and rheir ability to meet diurnal liabilities, are the only methods of determining the stability of a nation. It is known that certain nations are "the richest in the world," but the fact that the country that contains the moat millionaires is the poorest is often overlooked. The country where comfort is (most widely diffused, where the people are not "pineued," where there are no glaring disparities of poverty or wealth, is the land that is most truly prosperous. In England the general properity is shown by a return of imports and exports. It : s possible, however, for England to show a huge credit bahnce and have millions of half-starved people. It is possible for great industries to languisn and for

others to thrive. When England miports most she is most prosperous, for England is '"the pawnbroker of the world," and the imports of the earth s greatest trade emporium show indirectly that Britain is being well repaid tor her honest usury and world-wide enterprise. In New Zealand the position is quite different. We are a borrowing country, alid consequently the biggn the margin between imports and exports the better the condition uf the country. This year we have established a record, both in volume and the value of exports. Last yiar was a disastrous one for the Dominion. The exports were valued at £16,270,385, but it ie generally admitted that this value was in excess of realisations by quite a million sterling; while the imports were £17,471,284, a ditl'eience on the wrong ■side of at least two million)! st"rliiig. To provide for payment of interest on jpublic and private indebtedness to the foreign money-lender, a sum of approximately £3,500,000 is required annually, which means that the exports must exceed the imports by that amount. W.» therefore went back in the on<: year to the extent of £5.500,000. This accounts for the financial stringency, the unemployment and retrenchment itlmt mark id last year. The position has since been materially improvd. Our exports fir the yqar ending last month reached the highest point in tee histo-y nt tue Dominion. Our previous record vetr was in 1007, wh\i the exports were valued at £,20,041,562. During the p-ist year they realised £20,048,221. Where we gained, however, -was not so mucn in the increase in th' 1 . value of exports—though the latter were over five millions better than in the previous year—hut in the substantial decrease in oar imports'. The figures relating to imports during the past year are not available, but they are " estimated at about £15,000,000, whilst in 1907 they were £17,302,861. The margin between exports and imports last year was therefore about two millions greater than in 1007 and put us in the position we occupied prior to the depression. If our exports and prices keep up for the ensiling year—and there is no reason to believe that they will not—and the people continue t t . live within their means and avoid anything in the nature of speculation, the present year should witness a marked improvement in tlw position of the Dominion and which, as one banking or tommercial authority stated some little lime ago, might easily be mistaken for a boom.