CITY COUNCIL'S ESTIMATES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22459, 21 July 1938, Page 10

CITY COUNCIL'S ESTIMATES

CONSIDERATION ON AUGUST 1 SPECIAL MEETING TO BE HELD A special meeting of the Christchurch City Council will be held on Monday week, August 1, to consider its estimates for the current financial year. This information was given to "The Press" yesterday by! the chairman of the council's finance committee (Cr. G. Manning). Consideration of the estimates for submission to the council has not yet been completed by the finance committee, although it sat for more than five hours on Tuesday night discussing this business. "We have broken the back of the work though," said Cr. Manning, 'and consideration of the estimates will be completed at another meeting of the committee next Tuesday. The estimates as approved by the committee will then be submitted to the council at a special meeting on Monday week." , , , Last year the council struck a rate of 2Jd in the £, an increase of id on the previous year's rate. This year it is considered likely that an increase of at least id in the £ will be authorised by the council, for there have been increases in its wages bill and the standing committees are all asking for more money than they had last year, it is understood that the total increase sought by the committees is not far short of • £40,000. These requests for more money will, of course, be closely scrutinised by the finance committee and by the council, but it is said that the increases must be reduced to £26,000 if the council is to avoid striking for an addition of more than id in the general rate.