SUVA PROSPEROUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 72, 25 March 1936, Page 5

SUVA PROSPEROUS.

ABLE MANAGEMENT.

CREDIT BALANCE £12,613. REVENUE FROM ELECTRICITY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SUVA, March 17. At tlic town board meeting last week the town clerk presented an instructive report, which was heartily commended by Mr. Savage, the new assistant treasurer of the colony. Mr. Evans stated that the accounts showed an aggregate revenue of £39,704. The rate levy of £15,544 for 1935 was the lowest on record since the adoption of rating on the unimproved land values. While the council had an overdraft in 1922 of £7980, since 1930 it had a credit bank balance. The total rates outstanding were only £303, or under 2 per cent on the annual rates, a fact which will cause some oversea councils to question how it is done. Outstanding rates have always been a problem for municipalities everywhere. Suva seems to have discovered the solution. The surplus of liquid assets over liabilities stands at £12,613. An interesting comparison of how each £1 of the general fund is spent shows that the cost of administration takes 1/21, works 9/9J, health 1/lOf, parks and gardens 1/41, street lighting and public services 1/5.}, municipal property 1/7:}, interest on loans (for relaying a defective sanitary system and making new streets and bridges) 1/s}, redemption of loans Hid, loan sinking fund reserve 13d, purchase of assets 2Jd.^

The electricity department is proving a rich source of revenue, and the following figures show how the scheme has grown. In 1928, 716,335 units were sold, yielding £14,685, the rate being 4.90 d. In 1935, 1,252,418 units were sold, yielding an income of £13,435, with a reduced rate of only 2.57 d per unit. The city's management is doubtless an object lesson to many overseas municipalities.