A QUIET YEAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 May 1938, Page 7

A QUIET YEAR

ACTIVITIES OF TRUST LANDS TRUST CHAIRMAN’S COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW. STATEMENT AT ANNUAL MEETING. “Speaking generally of the activities of the Trust, the year can be described as a quiet one —a sort of calm after several stormy, troublous years,” stated the chairman, Mr J. Macfarlane Laing, in the course of a comprehensive review of the past year's work at last night's annual meeting of the Masterton Trust Lands Trust. There was only a moderate attendance at the meeting. “Following on the financial stringency created by the depression years and the disastrous earthquake in 1934,” Mr Laing added, “the Trust was forced to take steps to re-establish its position. I suggest that 1 those steps have now been taken and that it is only a matter of going along quietly with our work and in due course we must regain that proud position we formerly held in our community when it was possible to assist individuals, schools and institutions in a manner in keeping with the capital value of our endowment. I suggest that the Trustees must not take too short a view of matters concerning the Trust. It is the future which they should have most regard to and I do • very strongly consider that, after we have consolidated and made sound our present position, the prospects for the Trust, to' render community service and assistance on a scale comparable with its capital value are certain of achievement.” “You will have noticed from the printed statement of receipts and expenditure,” Mr Laing continued, “that we commenced the year with a credit balance in our Ordinary Account of £Bll 16s 7d and ended with £607 12s 5d still in hand, the excess payments over income being £204 4s 2d.- The Scholarship Account shows an excess of revenue of £52 17s 9d and the Memorial Park Account an excess of expenditure of £23 18s 3d. The final result over all three accounts is, therefore, an excess of expenditure over income of £175 4s Bd. ECONOMY NECESSARY.

“As I pointed out in my remarks to you at the last annual meeting, I then thought—and I still think —that it is most essential that the Trust should, if possible, present a balanced statement of accounts each year and not exceed its income by its expenditure. In other words, the Trust should live within its income. In actual fact, had it not been for gifts received from the Winter Show Fund and other sources totalling £595, the credit balance brought in at the beginning of the year would have been reduced from £Bll to £12.”

At April 1 last, Mr Laing continued, there was a credit balance in the Ordinary and Scholarship Accounts of £BBl Is lid, as compared with a credit of £1032 8s 4d in 1937 and £1593 4s 9d in 1936. Rentals received" during the past year totalled £5014 17s 4d, as against £4935 Ils 6d in 1937 and £4765 IQs lOd in 1936. It was pleasing to see the rentals increasing although the total was still considerably below the peak year of ‘1929. GRANTS CURTAILED.

Payments of grants from the Ordinary Account last year totalled £330. as compared with £734 13s 9d in the previous year and £4BB 6s 3d in 1936. The grants had to be curtailed severely owing to the heavy expenditure involved in the restoration of the Opera House. Property account expenditure during the year amounted to £3637 Ils sd, which included a transfer to the Building Reserve Account of £4OO. Interest and loan liability reductions payments made last year were £1599 ss. 9d. as against a sum of £1698 18s 3d in 1937. The past year’s expenditure on capital improvements, £283 Is, was the lowest for a number of years. In 1937 the amount was £786 14s Id. Repairs and maintenance cost £360, as compared with an expenditure in 1937 of £290 2s lid. It was the desire of the Building and Leasing Committee to maintain as far as possible all the buildings in as good order, repair and condition as was reasonable.

No further loans were raised during the year and the Trust loan liability was reduced. The present loan indebtedness was £14.640 as compared with £15,350 a year ago, together with a balance of £2OO owing on the Memorial Park debentures. “As against that loan liability.*’ Mr Laing added, “there is an accumulated sinking fund, which totalled £4913 8s Id at March 31 last. Over the next few years, our liability will be very substantially reduced, and with this reduction will come a correspondingly improved financial position for the Trust and greater possibility for substantial increases in grants. RENTALS SATISFACTORY.

“It is very pleasing to be able to state that there are no outstanding arrears of leasehold rentals at the end of our financial year, although the sum collected during the year was £4OlO 18s. The position is most gratifying to the Trust and also reflects credit upon our tenants. The total received under this heading was £1234 Gs 4d. a reduction of £BO Ils 6d when compared with the previous year. The statement of assets and liabilities of the Trust shows a surplus of assets of £86,980 10s 3d. after taking in our land at Government unimproved value of £62,507 and estimating the value of our buildings at £31.600. Grants made out of both the Ordinary and Scholarship Accounts last year totalled £4lO. as compared with £929 in 1937 and £1959 8s Id in 1934.

The substantial reduction in the amount of grants during the past year was a matter for some regret, but it was quite unavoidable and was the only thing the Trustees could do when they realised how much more the reinstatement and refurnishing of the Opera House was going to cost than what had been anticipated. The Buildings Reserve Account which was opened in the Post Office Savings Bank prior to the end of March 1936. had been further increased by another deposit of £4OO and the account, with accrued interest, now stood at £1234 IGs.