TRUST AFFAIRS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1939, Page 5

TRUST AFFAIRS

. ANHII.’.!. WITTING LAST J’jlGllT CHAIRMAN SURVEYS YEAR'S WORK. INCREASE IN GRANTS LIKELY. The activities of the past year were reviewed at the annua! meeting'of the i Mastortcn Trust Lands Trust, hold last | night. The chairman. Mr H. P. Hugo, I presided over a fair attendance, and I regret was expressed (hat voters had ' not attended in larger number:: to show j their interest in Ha- affairs of the Trust. I Mr Hiigu said Ihe ye.ir under review ' had bw.li a fairly busy one. especially I f,,r tile Euikliiif; Committee. Altera- | iit.ns :md ■ ivp.d;s had been carried out Ito a number of Trust buildings. Two |of the jobs iiad been costly and aci eounlcd lor too heavy expenditure of over £lOBO in the repairs and maintenance aecjunt. Re-mats from household and weekly tenants represented an increase of £373 over the previous year and the rentals naw stood at £5387. It had been found possible to increase grants fr-.m £4lO for 1937-38-to £607. If nothing unl’orseen happened there was no reason wny the grants should mil be again increased this year. There now remained only one more debenture of £1(10 to be paid with regard to the Memorial Pack. The redemption loan of £5.500 of 1929 had been repaid. Ji was originally a £10,901) loan raised for erecting buildings in Queen and Hall streets. Although the redemption of the loan would naturally decrease the annual outgoings for interest, the full benefit would not be felt for some time. ACTION APPRECIATED. Referring to the Opera House, Mr Hugo said il was gratifying to the .Trustees to see mat (heir action in restoring the building had been appro-, ■dated by the local societies and schools. Last, year tlie Opera House was let on 58 occasions and produced a revenue of £231. Ail the lettings were to local societies. The rental charged to local societies for the use of- the building was about the lowest in New Zealand. The loss on the Opera House of from £2OO to £250 a year was equivalent to a grant under the general utility side of the Trust. The total value of the Trust’s assets was now £103,452 and included £62,507 in land at Government valuation and buildings estimated conservatively at £36.000. Against that there were liabilities of only £10,814, which went to show what a wonderful; asset the Trust was to Masterton. There was a building reserve fund in the Post Office of £1668. At March 31 there was only £4 16s ii. rentals outstanding A satisfactory letting that would assist the income this year was the odd Technical School to the Social Security Department. Mr Hugo said that for the year prior to the 1934 earthquake, grants made from the Ordinary Account totalled £1554 8s Id and from the Scholarship Account £495. For the five years following the earthquake grants made were as follow: —19:15, Ordinary Account £265. Scholarship Account £315 10s; 1936, Ordinary Account £4488 6s 3d, Scholarship Account £215; 1937, Ordinary Account £734 13s' 9d, Scholarship Account £215; 1938, Ordinary Account £330, Scholarship Account £80; 1939, Ordinary Account £455 8s 9d, Scholarship Account £157, £152 7s; totals, £2273 8s 9d; £977 17s. A TREND REVERSED. Mr J. Macfarlane Laing said it was interesting to make a comparison with the figures presented at previous general meetings. In the recent past there had been what many of the members of the Trust regarded .as a tendency in the wrong direction. It was pleasant to see that this year the figures were go ing Hie right way. The Trust had commenced the year »vith a credit balance in its ordinary account of £607 and .ended with a credit of. £925, the excess of income over payments being £3lB. Taking all the accounts, there was an excess of income of £315 18s lid. a most satisfactory ending for the year and a reversal of the trend of past years. Only four or five years ago, he thought, they had had a credit balance of something over £1,500. The amount had fallen to £607. Now, at £925, it was moving up again. Rentals at £5028 shewed the very satisfactory increase of £613 over the previous year. Although there had been a rather heavy expenditure on repairs and renewals, the work had been well worth while. It had resulted not only in bringing premises well up to date, but in the Trust obtaining extremely satisfactory tenants. The general position of the Trust was slowly working to such a state that before long it would be able to make grants in keeping with the capital amount represented by the Trust property. Before that position could be reached, however, other liabilities had to be settled, in particular the loan for the erection of houses in Macara Street, payment son which had now been increased substantially. The Opera House account showed a deficiency of £205 14s and he suggested that this amount represented an indirect grant to local societies. He appealed to these societies to make still further use of the Opera House than had been made in the past. It was pleasing to note that the Opera House had been used during the past weelf. by one travelling company. The proprietors of the company had expressed satisfaction with the Opera House and probably would return next year and occupy it for a longer period. He hoped there would be a greatly increased use of the Opera House by travelling companies. It was very satisfactory that the old Technical School had been let to the Social Security Department. THE DENTAL CLINIC. Mr A. Donald said he considered that the policy of the Trust in writing off the rental owing by the Dental Clinic Committee for the use of rooms pvCnfcd by the Trust was quite wrong. The Dental Clinic, he said, should be on. the same fooling of as the Plunkct Society or the Y.M.C.A. and receive a straight out grant. Mr E. G. Eton said the Dental Clinic had always received generous support from the Trust. It was only during lean times that the grant had been discontinued. When funds were available he considered the Trust would be only too pleased to reinstate the grant. At the conclusion of the meeting a vole of thanks was passed to the chairman for his work during the year.