Town Hall Promotion Wants Milk-share Money

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 14

Town Hall Promotion Wants Milk-share Money

The executive committee of Town Hall Promotion will suggest to the City Council that it should pay into the town hall fund all, or a substantial part, of the £lOO,OOO from the sale of the council’s shares in the Christchurch Milk Company.

"With the £lOO.OOO investments held by Town Hall Promotion, the money already in the town hall fund, and the money from the sale of the milk shares, more than £300,000 would then be in hand to allow an early start to the project to be contemplated—surely a handsome starting point,” says a statement by the chairman of the general committee of Town Hall Promotion (Mr C. L. Martin). "The executive of Town Hall Promotion respectfully suggests that, when the council considers the disposal of £lOO,OOO received from the sale of the shares in the mtlk company, the claims of the council’s town hall fund should have high priority.” says Mr Martin’s statement, made after a recent meeting of the executive committee.

“One of the principal reasons for the establishment of Town Hall Promotion was to raise by voluntary effort a substantial sum which would augment the council’s own town hall fund and thus provide a rate-free capital sum towards the cost of a town hall.

“We strongly feel that the more this rate-free sum can be built up, the more certain will be the fulfilment of the desire of the council and the citizens for the provision of a long overdue amenity for Christchurch,” the statement continues. “The profits of the Christ-

church Milk Company, represented in the £lOO,OOO received from the sale of the council's shares, have been derived from the milk consumers of greater Christchurch and not merely from the ratepayers of the city. Therefore, the use of a substantial part of the proceeds of the sale of the council’s shares in the milk company to help to build a town hall, which will be an amenity enjoyed by the people of the whole of Christchurch, seems ’ appropriate and desirable. “The council has a wonderful opportunity to augment substantially its town hall fund, and thereby not only to bring the day of commencement of the building of a town hall much nearer, but also to reduce the loan money required and the possible rating burden which the town hall may ultimately cause,” The statement adds: “The use of the whole or a substantial part of the milk shares proceeds for one really worth-while public amenity, towards the provisidn of which the council has already committed itself, seems more desirable than the spreading of the £lOO.OOO over a variety of smaller projects.”

As the milk share monjy represented a capital profit to the council it should not, in the opinion of the executive of Town Hall Promotion, be used for purposes which would normally be financed out of rates. It should be applied to major capital projects which would otherwise necessitate loan finance. “Undoubtedly the town hall project comes into this category. It is something which will ultimately involve a very considerable sum. and anything which can be done to ease the problem of financing it and its cost to ratepayers in this and succeeding generations, shouid be welcomed,” the statement says.

“The council’s attention s drawn to the precedents established in other New' Zealand cities, such as Dunedin and Hamilton, where special council funds derived from the sale of buildings and trading activities have been used to assist the financing of town halls and so on. "In Hamilton, the city council sold one of its buildings to the New Zealand Broadcasting Service for £70,000. and the whole of this amount, plus a substantial amount from the council’s electricity trading fund, was used to augment its civic centre building fund.

“The executive of Town Hall Promotion,” the statement concludes, “is strongly of the opinion that the use of the council’s proceeds from the milk company shares in the manner suggested would meet with much public acceptance.”