A GOOD ASSET,

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1908, Page 7

A GOOD ASSET,

» CITY ELECTRIC LIGHT SUPPLY. SIX MONTHS' PROFITS, £8751. The electric light supply business which the City Council acquired last year from the Electrical Syndicate continues to show highly satisfactory pro-, fits. The excess of revenue over expenditure during the six months ending Slsfc January, 1907, was £701.5. , This period was one when the syndicate had control. For the corresponding period ending 31st January, 1008, under municipal I ownership, the excess of revenue over expenditure was £8751, being an inj crease of over £1700. The return for j the six-months period ended 31st July, 1907, was £13,645, tho period in inference being very much the best one in every year tor consumption of electricity and other iliuminants. If the £13,645 be added to tho £8751 earned by the works in the last six months, and assuming that the extra income for tho next' < half-year will exceed""the iiicomo for the half-year just completed b; ■ the sum o{r £3000, which is a very n oderato estimate, a total of £25,396 is obtained. The Fon. T. V. Hislop, who as Mayor of tho city was chiefly responsible for tho acquirement of the businesg by tho corporation, 'referred in terms of - pleasure to the foregoing results when seen by an Evening Post representative to-day. In commenting upon tho posi- ' tion, he said that from the income above indicated there had to be taken certain proper charges on account of purchase moneys, interest, etc. These were interest at 4 per cent, on £160,000, and a sinking fund at 2 per cent, on the same amount. Theso would absorb £9600, and there would then be left a balance of over £15.000 for allocation ' to depreciation, etc. FUTURE PROSPECTS. In a re3umo of the future prospects, 11 r. flislop said that tho business wan expanding rapidly. ThD connections of new customers had been st> numerous that it had beon necessary to extend the works and increase the plant. A sum of over £10,000 was being expended in new buildings and machinery, and the wholo of^ that amount was to be found out of the balance of income. It had always been, considered that the Wellington Gas Company had been a most lucrative investment, but if one turned 1 to its balance-sheet for the year ended | 31st December last it could be seen that j the corporation investment in the electric light supnly works was much more j so. Ihe total income of the Gas Company, so far as could be ascertained from the balanco-shee, was about £32,000. ' The company's capital, including debentures and reserve funds amounted to about £253,000, the share capital fund being £124,570. In tho open market tho company's £10 shares were selling at £19 each. Thus It could be seen that the corporation venture — with a total capital of only £160,000— was, making a very much better return to the' city than tho Gas Company was to its shareholders, considering the present mat-*, ket value of the Gas Company's shares.