CITY FINANCES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 80, 5 April 1933, Page 6

CITY FINANCES

"SUBSTANTIAL SURPLUS" . STATEMENT BY MAYOR

Speaking at the annual meeting of the ■Wellington Chamber of Commerce last evening, the Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop) said the City Council had succeeded in ending the financial year with a very substantial surplus.

■ "Wo started' two years ago," he said, "with a deficit of many thousands of pounds. Last year we had a deficit of £100, and this year, when the final figures are worked out, we shall have a surplus of between £8000 and £10,000. There are many people who think at once that further economies must mean a very substantial reduction in the rate burden. I grant that that should be done without delay, but as the Prime Minister has said in referring to the national finance, there are many difficulties in these matters. Although there will be a 'surplus, we have had an eye to tho future, and it so happens that We have to meet burdens which arc new; • but fortunately the surplus will go a long way towards enabling us to meet those burdens without enforcing any further reductions and increasing the burden of unemployment in the community."

Mr. Hislop remarked that although in one matter of .moment he felt at complete variance with the policy of the Government, he wished to say that during the past two years' he had on many occasions to go to the Prime Minister and his colleagues for advice and to ask for assistance not 'merely for the city, but through the city, to the whole' community, and he wished to say that on every" occasion ho had received the greatest help and encouragement, and had it not been for tho help the Government gave him about.a year ago in regard to unemployment matters a very serious situation would have -developed. He might say further that tho difficulties of unemployment now immediately ahead of us in Wellington waTQ being to a great extent alleviated by the action -the Government was going to take. He wished to make that statement publicly, and thank the Prime Minister and his colleagues for the very great help they had given him during his term of office.