BOROUGH FINANCES.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1922, Page 6

BOROUGH FINANCES.

EXPENDITURE OF LOANS. GENERAL MANAGER’S PROPOSALS. A report concerning the loan moneys and borough finances in general, was laid before the New Plymouth Borough Council last night by the general manager, Mr. F .T. Bellrigner. The report stated: — £142,000 Loan for Repayment of Maturing Debentures. This loan was sold in London 5% per cent, at 9S, and the proceeds have since been received, together with statements showing the expenses of raising the loan. These were as follows: —Discount on /sale of debentures at 2 per cent., £2840; brokerage, £1420; Eng- . •.! stamp duty, £1420; sundry expenses in London, £lO9 10s 8d: sundry expenses in New Zealand, including loan poll and printing debentures, £2OB 14s 6d; a total of £5989 5s 2d. This represents approximately 4.2 per cent. The amount earned in interest whilst the money was lying in London was £220 6s Bd, which will go to the credit of the interest account. With the proceeds it was necessary to repay matured debentures to the value ot £134,200, and there was, therefore, £136,001 14s lOd available for the purpose. There will, therefore, he a small surplus and. in accordance with the provisions of the Local Bodies Loans Act, 1913. this will the paid into the sinking fund and

eventually applied towards repayment of the loan. Of the matured debentures. £127,000 has been repaid, leaving debentures to the value of £1'0,200 still outstanding, of which £lO,OOO is in the name of one holder.

Of the debentures repaid, £67.440 was payable in Australia, and of this I was able to arrange for £37,000 to be repaid in London and for £30,440 to be remitted direct 'from London to Australia at no cost to the borough. This effected a considerable saving in inter-colonial exchange. The debentures of the old loans did not mature until October l.but the new loan became available on June 15. With the exception of the interest on an amount of approximately £40,. 000, which was repaid before due date, interest, therefore, will have to be paid on the old loans and also on the new loan from June 15 until October 1. when the old loans matured. The loss to the council in this respect will be in the vicinity of £2OOO, including the sinking fund. When the estimates for the current year were made up in March last it was anticipated that arrangements would be made whereby the proceeds of the loan would not be available until required on October 1. Had this been possible the first half year’s interest would not have been paid until the next financial year. As things turned out, however, the first half year’s interest and sinking fund, amounting to £4615. becomes payable on December 15 next. This amount a. shown was not allowed for in the various estimates, and the amount will have to be provided for by the various accounts affected. FLOTATION OF OTHER LOANS. Opportunity was taken of the fact that money would be available for reinvestment by the repayment of the maturing debentures above referred to, to endeavor to dispose of debentures in the £57,000 loan and the £22,500 tramways loan. Every debenture holder was circularised, requesting him to reinvest, and laiger holders were specially written to. The response, however, was not very satisfactory. The total money so re-invested amounted to £12,800. In addition we sold debentures of the £57,000 loan to the amount of £lBOO new money, not a reinvestment. £22,500 TRAMWAYS LOAN. ’ The total of this loan raised to date i is £5400. The expenditure has been ’ £295, leaving a balance of £5104. There is also a further liability of £8 for retention money on the Belt Road shelter. Eventually this loan also has to repay £10,508 advanced from the working account of the tramways in anticipation of tiie flotation of the loan, and being the greater part of the expenditure incurred on the purchase of the three new cars and spares. Of the balance of £5104 available it is intended to repay the tramways working account £3500 to meet the liability incurred by the purchase of a second electric bus. -In connection with this matter I would draw attention to the necesisty of immediately commencing the erection of the additional -housing, as the vehicle must by this time be nearing completion. Against. the available bainace, £2OO has been authorised to be spent in the construction of a strong room. £lO,OOO STREETS LOAN. This loan has now been completely expended. On March 31 last, £897 15s was available, and the following statement shows how this money was allocated and expended:— Streets.—Carrington Road. £1621 6s 3d: Courtenay Street, £799 19s 7d; Dawson Street, £196 16s '7d; Frankley Road, £566 4s 4d; Gilbert Street, £204 12s Id; Gover Street. £1232 15s 4d; Liardet Street, £1287 17s 9d; Lemon Street, £391 19s 9d; Mangorei Road, £247 13« sd; St. Aubvn Street, £lBB 5s Id: Vivian Street, £320 3s lid; Waiwaka Terrace, £267 17s 3d. Paths. —Courtenay Street, £7B 13s 2d; Carrington Road. £67 15s 8d; Devon Street, £1'642 2s 3d; Eliot Street, £29 2s; Gover Street, £435 15s Id; Liardet Street. £227 d-s sd; Watson Street, £44 Sundries. —Brokerage, £100; exchange, £2 10s; insurance. £52 15s 10d; printing and stationery, £2 ss; bank charge and cheque books, £2 15s; a grand total of £10,020 18s 9d. £57,900 LOAN. The total amount of this loan raised at March 31, 1922, amounted to £25.900. Since June a further £10.300 has been raised, and formation and metalling work in Waiwaka Terrace, the vote for which, £543 10s lid. has been authorised. The loan provides for this road to be surface dressed, the amount allowed being £154 9s Id. although this will not be required for some time yet.

These two items amount to just under £7OO, and provided the other authorised works can be completed within the estimates, there will, therefore, be £960'0 to be allocated for future works. I recommend that the amount be allocated as follows: —Public conveniences, £2O-00; sewer extension vote, £1000; Morley, Devon to Wallace Streets, £1536; Currie Lane, £238; Ariki Street, £419; Watson, Devon to Courtenay Streets (balance of vote), £24'6. Asphalt Paths: Devon South? Henui to Darnell, £561; Carrington, west side Courtenay to Smith. £1824; Standish, west side Dawson to Wallace, £203; Wallace (south side), Standish to Tukapa, £390: Tukapa (west side), Wallace to David, £539; St. Aubyn (south side), Terminus Hotel to Belt Road (vote having been cut down £2OO, this vote is not sufficient), £400; Powderham (south side). Dawson to Currie, £264. The above just exceeds the amount available, and there is nothing allowed for first year’s interest and no margin to meet contingencies in the event of any of the works costing more than the estimate. On the other hand, it seems quite probable that a few more debentures will be sold in the near future, which would then give the neccessary margin.. The council may, therefore, feel disposed to take the small risk of no more debentures being sold. If not, one . or more of the votes should be cut out, although it is very difficult to choose between them. The whole of the works recommended are comprised in the schedule upon which the loan is based.

The reasons for the recommendation for the/various works enumerated are as follows:—Public conveniences: The council have undertaken to provide these in the immediate future, and tenders have been invited for the work. Sewer extension: £lOOO was previously allocated to provide for the plans and" levels,

etc., now being taken by Messrs. Sladden and Palmer. The council intend immediately appointing a drainage en-

gineer to report upon a comprehensive scheme of drainage for the whole borough. It is, therefore, necessary to have money available to meet the cost of the report and such further plans as may be required before the report can be furnished. Morley Street: This work has to proceed contemporaneously with the extension of the tramways to Westown, and money must be kept for the purpose. Currie Lane and Ariki Street: These streets are right in the centre of the town, and at present are nothing more or less than eyesores. Watson^Street: This is to complete the

surface dressing which, with works already authorised, will then extend from Devon Street to the mortuary chapel in the cemetery. No provision is made for asphalting the footpaths, but if possible the footpath on the west side should be asphalted from Devon to Lemon Streets. Paths: When the loan proposals were before the public in 1920, a good deal was made of the fact that provision was made in the loan for the construction of a permanent footpath to Fitzroy. Vogeltown, Westown, and St. Aubyn. Apart from this it is very desirable that each of these places should have at least one good footpath. A limited amount of money being now available, I have recommended accordingly. With regard to the Westown and V’ogcltown .paths, it must not be overlooked that portions of these cannot be constructed until the tramway extension work is undertaken. On the Vogeltown route this applies mainly to vhe Victoria Hill section, which will probably be widened at some future date. At the same time I think that money should be retained for the work when it is possible to proceed with it. The recommendations contained in the report were approved by the council.