ELECTRICITY LOAN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 50, 16 August 1939, Page 5

ELECTRICITY LOAN

PROPOSALS DISCUSSED THE HEADS AND THE PA The minutes of the Financc and Electrical committee tabled at the Whakatane Borough Council's monthly meeting on Monday night showed that in connection with electricity department finances the clerk had prepared a statement detailing receipts and expenditure for the first three months of the current financial year. This disclosed that the calls upon the department, particularly for capital requirements, were greatly exceeding the estimates, and that the necessity for extra capital funds was becoming urgent. He was instructed to take out figures to determine the extent to which loan monies would be necessary. In regard to the suply of electricity to The Heads the Mayor reported that certain legal difficulties had presented themselves, and that it would be necessary to wait enabling legislation,. It was recommended that the work of extending the power supply system to The Heads be deferred, and that the clerk include provision for this work in the loan figures already referred to. _ They would require something like £6000 spread over three years, said Mr Barry. The best way would be to hypothecate debentures to the bank and draw the money as they wanted to spend it, repayment to be made out; of revenue. They could carry out the. preliminary steps in the near future; eventually they would have to take a poll of th-? ratepayers. It was impossible to continue to pay for the work out of revenue. Already this year they were almosl up to the estimate for the financial year. When the money was raised they would strike a rate for security, but there would be no need to collect it. Cr W. Sullivan said that the people at The Heads would be well advised to link up with the borough, otherwise he did not like the idea of including them in the scheme. It might react against the proposals if the ratepayers had to provide money for facilities for people not in the borough. He thought the ratepnj-. crs should sanction the loan, and that the Finance Committee should get on with the preliminary steps.

Mr Barry said the proposals would mean lower electricity charges. He agreed that The Heads should be brought within the borough. Cr Sullivan brought up the ques. tion of the Pa. Those who knew anything of past history of local affairs in Whakatane regretted that the Pa had ever been separated. The Maori was becoming more or loss Buropeanised and before- long that area would become a residential area. The. pa had been cut out of the borough in 1924 because they Avere levying rates and getting no revenue. That had been short-sighted and it would have been, far better to have levied the rates and left them uncollected if the council had thought fit. The borough water and electricity would be wanted in that area. In reply to a question the clerk said that residents in the area would be liable for special rates struck prior to 1924 when the Pa was in the borough, as well as for general rates. The Heads would be called on to pay general rates; they would still be liable for the county special rates. A motion from the Mayor that the question of bringing The Heads and the Pa into the borough be referred to the Finance Committee was car. ried.