WANGANUI’S DEBT

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 34, 3 November 1934, Page 14

WANGANUI’S DEBT

Further Reduction Made TWO LOANS REPAID Dominion Special Service. AViuigimui, November 1. V reduction of the city’s indebtedness by* £37,170 was made to-day with the repayment o£ two loans, one of 133,0J0 on the corporation gas undertaking and the other of .£3580 on the opera house, l ie transaction was the cause of a mild celebration sponsored by the gas department, which held a social evening in the Avenue premises. Toasts speeches, appropriately, referred to the wise administration of civic affairs which has operated over the past four years and has brought about a reduction _in the city s debt over that period of £165,531. It was shown by the town clerk, Mr G Murch; that the loan indebtedness ot AVanganui nt March 31, 1931, was £l,117 934. As nt to-day s date that figure stood at. £952,103, but there were accrued sinking funds in hand to it to al of £140,300 making the net public debt on No-J

vember 1, £811,797. The figures quoted bv Mr Murch showed, further, that a reduction of £59,955 had taken place since March 31, 1934. “No Mean City.” The Mayor, Mr. N. G. Armstrong, payin'’’ tribute to those who had worked hard during the past four years, which he said were .the most critical in the city’s history, described AVanganui as “no mean city,” He had been very impressed with that definition, which had been applied by a young speaker at a railway social gathering recently. People could honestly say that AVanganui was “no mean cijj'.” His AVorship said that, like all other centres, AVanganui had suffered by the depression. Past councils were not to blame, in that there was a fever of borrowing throughout the country. The feeling was that it did not matter how much was borrowed ; it would all come right in tiie end. But the whole country had been brought up with a sudden jolt. If it. slipped back into the old ways of over-borrowing there would always be a bad time ahead. The only commonsense policy was to live within revenue. If AVanganui continued that policy there was no reason why it should not go speakers paid tribute to the wise administration of Mr. jyrmstrong, and regretted that he was not continuing AI. Falconer toasted the “Sink-

ing Fund Commissioners,” and said that the sinking funds had been very wisely invested in AVanganui. Some pressure had been made years ago to induce the investment of these funds in ordinary mortgages, but the town clerk and commissioners had bad the backbone to say no, with the result that the funds to;day were soundly invested. Under the city’s loan conversion scheme the task of the commissioners would be easier, in that the conversion provided for automatic absorption of the funds.

Mr. Arthur Davis, Jun., of Wellington, has been appointed assistant manager of Mnsterton Amusements Ltd., and ■ will take charge of the Cosy Theatre.