SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1878.] WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1894. THE BOROUGH FINANCES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4782, 25 July 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1878.] WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1894. THE BOROUGH FINANCES.

Tub balance sheet of the Mastcrton Borough Council was published in our last issue, and contains no feature of exceptional interest. Mayor Heron is a careful administrator, and if, with him at the head of affairs, progressive spirits are disappointed, staid conservatives are perfectly satisfied. Tho general incomo of the Boiough is about two thousand pounds a year, half of it being derived from rates and the other half coming from subsidies and fees. The expenditure is, of course, on much the same scale ns the income, a half of it goes in street making and mending, and the other half is devoted to working expenses, fire prevention, charitable aid and interest. Of the gas supply account but little need bo said, as tho Council at the present timo is putting its affairs straight in this department, and till they are iu good workingorder criticism is unnecessary. In the Public Library account, wo would like to see more than nine per cent, of the income spent on books and periodicals; but, till the management of this branch of the Borough business is relegated, as in somo other municipalities, to literary experts, there is little prospect of improvement. If the control of it were transferred tp a body liko the "Homo Reading Union " for a ycav, we should expect to see a few new works of some literary value ou tho shelves, Wo trust the time will Bonn arrive now when the general balance-sheet of the Borough will be on a somewhat moro pretentious scale. Mastcrton,' though fairly raided, is a dirty insanitary place, without proper water supply and without drainage. Sooner or later, improvements of this character must be made,' and had not leading residents been exceedingly apathetic and indifferent, they would have been initiated long ago.