CITY LOANS AND RATES

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 56, 30 November 1923, Page 6

CITY LOANS AND RATES

FINANCIAL POSITION OUTLINED

FURTHER .INCREASES PROBABLE The following statement as to the city’s financial position has been prepared by the City Treasurer, and handed to a reporter by the Mayor, Mr. R. A. Wright. City’s debt at March 31, 1921 (including bank overdraft and temporary loans), £2,862,232. City’s debt at March 31, 1923, £3,779,654. Increase in two years, £917,422. Loans authorised by ratepayers, but not yet raised, £1,073.875. When the loans are floated the city’s debt will amount to £4,853,527. The rates levied for the year 1920-21 totalled £261,397. The rates levied for the year 1923-24 totalled £341,547. Increase in three years, £80,150. Additional rates requir. 1 for the year 1924-25: Water. £7118; special, £3625; total, £10,743. The annual charges on the loans authorised, but not yet raised, will amount to £64,920. Tramways and lighting will provide £13,212" of the charges, and the balance, £51,708, must be found by rates. The amount of £51,708 will be apportioned as follows: Water rate, £26,859; special rates, £24,849. It is possible, of course, to increase the charges for water-by-meter, in order to reduce the amount required to bp levied by water rate. In any case the citizens should know that the further sum of £51,708 will have to be provided annually as soon as the loans to which we are com mitted are fully raised. The position, remarks the city treasurer, will be that the further sum of £10,743 required next year, and the sum of £51,708 required later will raise the city’s annual rate revenue to over £400,000’, as against £341,547 for the current year. To these figures had to be added stated Mr. Wright, those in respect of the scheme launched by the Hospi tai Board for the raising of a quarter of a million in five years, the first, instalment of which, £50,000, was now on the market. The loans were to be for twenty years, and consequently the sinking fund would be fairly heavy, probably about 2 per cent., so that, the district affected “could look forward” to finding a considerable sum bv way of interest and sinking fund Wellington, of course, would not be the one contributing body, but would be considerably the largest contributor. Some additional revenue would per baps be obtained by the board when the new premises were in use, but a big proportion would still have to be met by way of rates. It had not been possible to make provision for that additional indebtedness in the figures drawn up by the city treasurer, for the reason that the exact amount was not known.