LOCAL BODY SURPLUS CREDITS.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20822, 4 April 1933, Page 8

LOCAL BODY SURPLUS CREDITS.

A SCHEME OF INVESTMENT. On the recommendation of its Finance Committee the Riccarton Borough Council decided last evening that the matter of investing the surplus credit balance in the district fund account in the month of April should he left with the chairman of the finance committee (Cr. W. Machin) and the town clerk (Mr R. Sarjeant). '"We have an idea," said Cr. Machin, in moving the adoption of the report, "that something better than placing the money on fixed deposit should be possible. There is an enormous amount of money lying to the credit of local bodies for long periods ut the year which earns no interest whatever. At present it is against the law to invest such money; but perhaps, if some amendment were brought about, money now lying to the credit of local bodies for months on end could be invested in such a way as to earn the best interest it is possible for it to earn." Cr. Machin said it was possible that a national scheme, affecting all local bodies, might be put forward. The interest on the borough's surplus credit, he said, could be set off against the borough's indebtedness, or the indebtedness of other local bodies. The Mayor (Mr H. S. S. Kyle, M.P.) said he was glad Cr. Machin had raised this particular question, on which he had spoken in the House of Representatives, where he did not get much backing, because there were not many local body representatives in the House. Cr. Machin: When the Local Bodies Commission is set up, it is a thing that might be considered. The Mayor: Yes—if they set it up. It looks now as if they might not do anything more about it. Mr Kyle added that the Government was in the same position as local bodies were in—although it had credits in certain departments, it was paying interest on overdrafts all the time.

The report, of which the recommendation was a part, was adopted.