TO-NIGHT'S MEETING,

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1251, 6 July 1880, Page 2

TO-NIGHT'S MEETING,

As the subject Mattel 4 of the meeting of the Burgesses to-night is to discuss the letter lately addressed to the Council, from the Audit Office Wellington, and as the Council have omitted furnishing us with a copy, we have taken the letter as it appeared in the Star. It is but fair that our readers, the burgesses, should be put into possesion of particulars in connection with this affair, and be prepared to discuss the matter with the fullest knowledge of the subject: — ".Sir, — The Commissioners of the Public Debts Sinking Funds lent to the Borough of Hamilton the sum of £7000 hccured upon the debentures issued by the Borough, which were secured xipon a rate of 1 s in the £ on the rateable property in the Borough, upon the uudcivrtanding expressed in writing that the whole of the proceeds of the tolls of the bridge, after payment of the necessary expenses of collecting the toll were to be paid over to the Commissioners, the excess after paying the interest on the debt, to be applied to forming a Sinking Fund for repayment of the principal sum lent, and it was further agreed th.it the Corporation was to have the right of buying up its own bonds with the Sinking- Fund thus accruing. On tho other hand it is understood that if their terms were adhered to the Comptroller and Auditor - General wonld, under the power vested in him, suspend the collection of a special rate. It appears, however, upon the examination of accounts of the Borough for the year ending the 31st March, 1880, that the receipts from the biidge have been carried into the bridge special fund account, which is not only contrary to the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, which distinctly requires the loan accounts to be kept separate from current accounts, but is also contrary to the agreement on which the money referred to was advanced to tho Borough. It becomes, therefore, my duty to point out to you that, unless tho tolls of the bridge are paid over to the Commissioners to be invested in a SinU ing Fuud the Comptroller and Au-'i-tor-Generalwillnotbe justified in releasing the Special rate, which must be collected iorthw ith. The terms of tho agreement were framed on the desire of the Commissioners not to invest money on property of so perishable a character as a bridge without t'-ie piovision of an ample Sinkmg Fund sufficient to extinguish the debt within a few years. — I have, etc., J. E. Yn/MERKhV.