HUTT RIVER BATES

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 35, 10 August 1933, Page 6

HUTT RIVER BATES

FINANCIAL POSITION

The Hutt River Board yesterday passed its estimates for the year 1933-34, and decided to strike a rate the same as lust year. The chairman remarked that the board ought to be able to reduce its rates nest year. The rate struck is 13-100 din the £ on the capital value, with, of course, the usual rates to cover interest on loans. The general rate is estimated to produce £3350. The estimates show an estimated revenue of £8325, of which rates amount to £5975, rents £800, and royalties £500, and from unemployment funds £950. The expenditure is estimated to be £8055, of which it is proposed to spend £1600 on new works, £1600 on maintenance, £2075 on interest and sinking fund, £1000 on unemployment, and £800 on administration. The actual amount received last year was £7703. and the amount expended £8230. The rates last year produced only £4694, and the estimated increase in the coming year is accounted for by the fact that legal proceedings are being taken to recover rates outstanding for three years. In a review of the financial position the financial committee—Messrs. P. J. Jones and J. Mitchell—state that the financial stringency is attributable to the board's rating area being restricted by properties covered by State Advances loans reverting to the Crown, and to the large number of ratepayers who are unable to meet their liabilities. The dearth of large building and works schemes has heavily reduced the revenue from royalties on shingle. Had these causes not operaijA the board would have beeu in a position to reduce, the rates.