ONEHUNGA FINANCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 98, 28 April 1933, Page 3

ONEHUNGA FINANCES.

ADMINISTRATION ATTACKED. MR. MOUNTJOY'S CHARGES. Severo criticism of the administration of the Mayor of Onehunga and the finance committee of the council was voiced by Mr. F. W. Mountjoy, candidate for the Mayoralty, at a meeting of about 20 residents at Royal Oak last evening. Mr. R. Sutherland was in the chair. Until the financial statement had been brought down recently the members of the council outside the finance committee had known little or nothing of the financial position of the borough, said Mr. Mountjoy. They then discovered that if the council continued as it had been going it would soon be impossible to keep the relief workers employed, as the overdraft had increased from £600 to £5000. The balance-sheet for ,1031-32 had not come down until last March, and the balance-sheet for 1931-32 a week later. The gross debit was shown as £9127 and the net deficit £4399. This had been attributed to the non-payment of rates, but this would not account for such a sum. The fault lay with the finance committee, which had over-estimated the council's income. Instead of the £31,159 estimated, the council had received only £28,011. From the Hillsboro' Cemetery the finance committee had expected to receive £200 more than in the previous year, and the receipts had fallen short of the estimate by £306. The pavment of £250 to the Mount Roskill Road Board had been omitted from the estimates, and had later to be taken out of the cemetery account. The £6000 outstanding rates on Crown lands did not affect the position, as only £200 was allowed for. The incoming council would have to budget for a deficit and carry an overdraft throughout the year. Mr. Mountjoy considered that the one bright spot in the financial statement was the water account. Oneliunga had been supplying Mount Roskill with water, and he thought the new reservoir was a good investment; £2000 had been paid off it, leaving a debt of £3958. That would be paid in three or four years. Jt would be a very profitable asset in the future, but would not help the council in the coming year, during which a deficit of £4000 would have to be faced. The council had been in trouble with the Local Bodies Loans Board, said Mr. Mountjoy, over the concreting of footpaths. When the council obtained an unemployment loan of £4500 the board had approved a schedule of streets to be done and materials to be used. The council had departed from the schedule, and had received a letter from the Auditor on the subject. Kerbing and channelling iiad been neglected and roads not on the schedule had been done, and at the last meeting it had been proposed to ask the Loans Board for permission to vary the schedule. Under the Mayor's roading scheme, the incoming council would find itself committed to over £3000 for work which it would be unable to carry out in the present financial condition of the borough. Mr; Mountjoy said, however, that an unemployment loan of £8500 could bo obtained for concreting. That would give work to the local unemployed, especially the married men, who should not, he thought, be sent away to camps. The concreting already done in the borough was a monument to the honest work of the unemployed. A motion of confidence was carried unanimously.