UNKONWN

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLV, Issue 6852, 13 April 1917, Page 2

UNKONWN

PAST YEAR'S WORKING

His Worhip the Mayor (Mr C. E. Macmillan (delivered an address in the Town Hall last night dealing, with the financial transactions of the Borough during the past year. There were about seventy people present, and Mr J. Murdoch was voted to the chair.

The Mayor prefaced his remarks with the statement th%t the meeting wag in no sense a candidate's meeting or political address. He came before the people us Mayor and hs having: had charge of the Boroug i affairs during the past two years. He would be pleased to answer any questions relating to the figures he would giv;\ but would not answer any questions of a debatable oatur?, or enter into any discussion upon them.

The Town Hall

He dealt first with the Town Hall pictures. There h^d beenmich talk and criticism, and he therefore proposed to show the position as it stood now: — The figures were:— £ 3 d Sale of ticket*, date of opening (20:4:15) to 31:3:17 1021 11 II Hire of film'. etc., £388 12 1 Wages, etc,. £352 18 9 Cartage and freight £41 7 11 Miscellaneous £5 4 I 788 2 10 Gross profit 233 9 1

This was not a large profit and was further reducible by £86 14a 3d paid to the electrical department for current. This amount could not be credited to both the pictures and tne electrical department. The latter department was entitled to end had received the credit, therefore the profit on the pictures was reducible by that amount. This left tbe net profit at £146 14s lOd. The Borough liad had to pay £565 123 5d in interest and sinking fund. In addition, however, to the net profit of £146 14s lOd, the Councilcould fairly claim that the municipal offices and the ball basement (used as a workshop by the electricity department) was worth £2 per week to the Borough. There had therefore been a loss rough ly of £315. No rate bad been struck to meet this deficiency; tie amount had been paid out of the general account.

He then proceeded to show the position of the Town Hall as at 31 March last. £8250 bad been borrowed, and other charges in completing and furnishing the hall and equipping it for pictures had brought the total cost to £8843, say, £8850/' Interest and sinking fund on the £8256, interest on the £600 (raised by overdraft), and insurance £30, made altotal' of £568 I0«, which the Council had to* find each year, but this made no provision for depreciation on the furniture or picture equipment. Roughly, therefore, the Council could only be in a safe position by raising £600 per annum. The position was that the Council was getting £8 per week for the Hall— £416 per annum, sale of current would realise £80 per annum, and a fair allowance for rent of the municipal offices, etc., was £104. Tbis gave £600, and aa the £568 10s wag required there was a margin of £32 10s for depreciation. He did cot wish to argue the point, but felt he could safely say that tbe Town Hall was on a very sound basis indeed. If the rent improved—and when the war was over it should—the town hall would not be a drag upon the people. During the coming year the actual cash receipts (rent and payment lor electric curlent) would be £496, and in addition the Council had the use of the offices and the basement for a workshop. The figures were in no sense inflated. The most optimistic supporter of the tows hall never dreanrt that in twelve months it would be self-supporting. In his opinion, on the figurea presented,' it was self-supporting. It would not return anything more thaa expenses, but during the coming twelvemonths it would show no loss.

Electricity Working.

The next account dealt with waa t\ie electricity working account. The account did uotdeal with the house wiring. It merely showed what it cost annually to produce the current and what wns received. The sale of 1 current for the year realised £1396>a 53 under three different headings, viz., lighting, heating, and power. The Council had to pay interest and sinking fund on £12,650 (the amount "of the original loar.), and interect on £4600 which had to be borrowed to complete the scheme, besides all other expenses including engineer's salary and allowance, rent of showroom in Devonport Koad, fitting up show room and basement in town hill, retit of house at Omannwa, printing, advertising, and stationeiy, tools, meter reading, generation labour and material, distiibutior, and miscellaneous charges.* Rent of show room and the cost of fitting up a showroom would not of course recur. These charges totalled £874 Os lOd, and with the interest and sinking fund made a total of £1785 to be found annually.- But ■ little more than this bad to be found because £4600 was not sufficient to complete the scheme, and the general account bad been drawn for a certain sum in excess of that and interest would have to be reckoned on that excess. Leaving it, however, at £1785, and deducting the £1398 9s 5d obtained from the sale of current, a sum of £388 18s lid was left to be made up by way of rate. That was the position at March 31st, but it had to be remembered that £1396 9s 5d was the amount obtained fur current during the year, with installations going in all the time, ant] most of them were not in until a great portion of the year had gone. Ha could assure the people that on two accounts alona the revenue from current this year would increase fcy £200. The Dairy Company would be u much larger consumer and Messrs Gammans Tauranga Limited had put in an installation to raise water to their mill at Omanawa which would return at least £2 per week. The next Council therefore when it framed its estimates could seriously consider the advisabliity_of striking no electrical rate at all. He threw this suggestion out so that candidates could go, if they wished, to verify bis sUtfimenta and satisfy themselves as to the position.

House Wiring. Toe bouse wiring account for the ptst twelve months stood as follow :— £ 8 d Receipts 2090 11 1 Receipts for previous year 1353 18 5 Outstanding accounts 31:3:1917 611 3 11 4055 13 5 tThia meant that in two years the people has spent £4055 in house wiring

w..e.» nil accounts were paid. This »a ' • big sum. To get at this accoun! accurately it bad to be taken W V its inception. By doing this it Wo -iS be seen that £4055 will have bee ;:* raid for the house wiring and th* -' Council hi9 spent on that account th* sum of £4999, aay £5000. Apparently * then the house wiring had cost th Council nearly £1000, but stock hid been taken and it had been ascertained v that the value of stock in hand was * £835. Therefore there has been a loss ~ of £105 on this account. The incoming Council has it entirely ia their own hands to make tliia loss good or not The position was that had not the p re '. sent Council pushed the housewirr ß installations by giving the people reasonable terms asid in putting it in at reasonable price it would not have boen in a position to earn £1400 per annum for the electricity department Moat of the outstanding hoasewir'ne accounts were in fairly large amounts aome from JG3U upward?. He sirrpli wished to point out that the Finance Committee afte-going carefully i n t o the accounts were satisfied that there was not one bad debt amongst them except one which might be doubtful' an installation having been put \v f Or a tenant who had left a building and the landlord was not prepared to take it over, but even in this case the Council were not at a loss beciuae the revenue being earned was more than good interest on the sum in. ~' voiced. " '

Outstanding Rates.

The Mayor explained that he wei unable yet to Rive a complete staternent of assets and liabilities 88 at 31st March last, but explained the position in regard to rate?. The general rate9 Btruck for 1916-17 was cati- } mated to produce £1118. Of this £1058 had bsen collected, leaving £60 outstanding. The outstanding general "- rates f0r!915-16.outstanding at 3ht March last were £13, but this h«d eince been paid. The watpr rate struck for 1916-17 was estimated to produce £946, and £868 had been collected, leaving £74 outstanding. The outstanding water rates foi the previous year had all been collected

and nothing written off. The electric • * light and streets special rates- of 6d and 7£d respectively were estimated . to produce £1259 and ware not six " months overdue till 30th Junn next. Of this £502 bad been collected nod * £757 wag outstanding. The amount of these two rates for 1915-16 outstand- "* ' ing at the beginning of the year wis £445 and all but £22 had been collected. The drainage loan special rat* for tho year was estimated to produce £498. Of this £153 had been collected, leaving £345 outstanding. Of the rates due for the previous yeir £12 was outstanding. It would thus be seen that of the rates due fcy 31st \ March lust there was not a great deal ""' outstanding. Of tlie retes due and not usually sued for until they were more than six monhta overdue there " waa quite a substantial amount outstanding, and alwßya would be. No rates had been written off. Some accounts had been handed to the solicitor for collection, hut the Council lnd gone on the principle thit having collected such a large sum - (£4055) from the people for electrical installations, and considering the exDense they had been put to in other directions, ouch aa sewerage connections it should not deal harshly in the " ' matter of payments, and had given > them as long as possible to pay their - accounts. Of course when no further :

installations were being made and tbe Council were not taking £2000 a yew from the people the Council's attitude"

could, and Rfcould be, entirely changed. Any account more than three - months outstanding had, however, : been carefully investigated and where necessary steps had been taken to collect them.

Band Instruments.

There had been a certain amount of criticism, said the Mayor, regard- I ing ths sum of £300 collected in 1914 for the band. The position in regard i It the amount paid in by the Carnival Committee was tbat out of this the Borough had to reimburse ifielf £50 previously paid ou account of instruments, but which the auditor pointed cut it could not legally pay, and pay the balance—£lo2 2s 9d owing for the instruments. Since then £60 12s 2d had been spent for instruments, and the account at this date was therefore in credit £87 5s Id. Tbat was to say the Council was holding that smoui.t in trust to spend for band instrument*. The account had shown an expenditure slightly in excess of what he bad stated, but he had found oa looking into the matter tbat an amount for lining the band room had been charged against it, and he had had this amended, us that work was not properly chargeable to ths account. The total amount of £212 14s lid paid by the Council had been for instruments.

The Harbour

Turning to harbour matters the Mayor pointed out that the Council held at the present time Harbour Board debentures for £2500. This waa the result of the agreement between the Council and the Boird that the lit-

ter body should retain t,he £2500 out of the amount due to the Council for the purchase of the wharves, for the purpose of deepening the harbour to the Town Wharf. The Mayor outlined the position in correction with the dredging operations and pointed out that no portion of this £2500 had been paid over on account of the work already done, and be pointed out to a deputation from the Harbour Board which had waited upon him in connection with the matter tbat in the opinion of the Council the Public Works Department was net entitled to any payment for the experiments made by them in the harbour, . for the work done had been entirely in the nature of experiments, particularly in the d;rection of demonstrating that the dredge employed wss the most unsuitable for the class of work it had to do. The Board aEd the Council were working in perfect harmony regarding the expenditure of the £2500.

Streets Improvement

Dealing with this matter Mr Macraillan pointed out that the Council was morally bound to the ratepayers to raise £5000 for street improvements. The Council's efforts to secure the money had so far been unsuceastul but ratepayers were probably not all aware that the Mayor of Auckland proposed to lay before Parliament next session a {proposal for pooling local bodies' loans. Most of the cities and boroughs in the Dominion required money and they should not be in the position of having to competewith each other in the open icarket for ic.

The General Account

The general account, said the Mayor, be would deal with at a candidate's meeting, because tbat arcount would probably provoke a good deal cf discussion, and he could not very well go into it without taking sides, which waa not the purpose of the present meeting, and without justifying his position or the position of the Council in tbe striking of what was commonly considered a totally inadequate rßte. The position of the general account was that there was a credit balance of £187 13s 5d at 31st March last, and a debit balance at the bank of £5446, or plus outstanding cheques and less cash in hand, £6464 9s 6d. Without the statement of assets and liabilities he was unabla to say what assets the Council had to place against these liabilities, but he hoped to have the, information when he appeared ss a candidate and would then be pleased to answer any questions as to how the accouuts g.ot into the position diiclußed by the ■tatemente. The Chairman (Mr Murdoch) said that aa Treasurer of the Band Carnival Committee he endorsed the Mayor'B statement regarding the band account, but thought that a sum of some £20 had also been paid out of it to the late bandmaster. Some people seemed to think that the money had been used for other purposes than instruments, but the position was that the money was raised and had been earmarked for that purpose alone. Mr Ciichton wished to know whether j the Mayor was aware that in connection with the Band Carnival three j mirrors had been fjiven to the Counci j to be placed in the town hall, and if so whether he knew where they had gone to.

The Mayor replied that he had no knowledge of such a gift. The Chairman said he thought there was a mirror and the chair used for the crowning ceremony, but he could sa^ nothing as to what had become of them.

Mr Crichton then referred to a stater ment which he had regarding the hand accouLt. This statement had been prepared by the late acting Town Clerk and at bis, the speaker's instigation, the figures had been amended and the matter did not come before the Council until some time later. He asked, therefore, how the Mayor could say that he had caused the statement to be amended. t Mr Webster, late acting Town Clerk pointed out that the statement had been prepared by him. He had no knowledge whatever as to the conditions under which the money had been paid to the Council. He had therefore when asked to prepare a statement simply showa the receipts and the whole of the expenditure on account cf the band and the band room. The statement bad been prepared by i;im and was not from the Council at all. When the position was pointed out he bad of course amended the statement.

The Mpyor said he was not concerned in toe slightest about any statements that Mr Cnehtan or anyone else had bßd prepared. He took ths responsibility for the figures he had given that evening only, and Mr Crichton or anyone eke could dispute them if they liked.

A hearty vote of thanks to the Mayor for his address was carried by acclamation on the motion of,the chairman, seconded by Mr Carmichael.