CIVIC ELECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 85, 10 April 1935, Page 13

CIVIC ELECTIONS

KELBURN MEETING

CITIZENS' CANDIDATES

FINANCIAL STABILITY

The Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, and citizens* ticket candidates for the City Council, Hospital Board, and Harbour Board addressed residents of Kelburn in the Kiosk last evening Mr. A. J. Luke, who presided, emphasised that the candidates who were supported by the Citizens' Election Committee, were offering their services in the interests of all citizens and were free of .all ties of party or sectional politics. "It may interest you to know that in the past four years the actual debt of the city has been reduced by approximately three-quarters of a million pounds," said Mr. Hislop. "That has been done partly by the repayment of certain loans as they became due and partly through the conversion of the very large amount of loan debt that was held in New Zealand." Mr. Hislop said that the conversion took place under the authority given by Parliament and had made provision for those who did not wish to come into the conversion to receive payment in full, and the council had paid out in that way a total of £82,000. As a result of the application of the conversion scheme the loan system had been entirely altered; instead of having a fixed loan and paying out so much in interest and so much in sinking fund annually during the life of the loan, the whole of the locally-held loan had been turned into an instalment loan and each year so much was paid in reduction of the capital amount. Several advantages followed from the new plan. In the first place a continual reduction was effected in the capital amount, and in the second, there was an avoidance of the position of having moneys invested in sinking funds, for should the market value of such funds fall they would be unable to meet the requirements for which they were contemplated. The conversion had been of great benefit to the city, and the officers of the council were to be congratulated on the way in which they had carried the operations through. RATES AND SERVICES. Mr. Hislop said that the rates burden had also been reduced considerably. He was not one, however, who would go on trying to reduce rates simply because they were rates, for rates were payments required from trie citizens in return for necessary services essential for the carrying on of the city's life and development. To save merely for the sake of saving might conceivably be a very bad thing, but the rates demand had in 1931 grown in a most extraordinary manner from an average over previous years of about £400,000 to £430,000 to over £500,000, just on the eve of most serious economic difficulties. Though during the years of highest prosperity £400,000 to £430,000 had sufficed for the city's needs, suddenly the demand rose by £100,000. The council was faced with the necessity of making a reduction, and had to date.been able to reduce' the demand by approximately £30,000 per year, and'in the same period the council had turned a deficit into a surplus, and had carried on all necessary maintenance works. Moreover, during the same "period a greater length and area of sealing had been done than in any similar period, and a considerable amount of footpath work had been carried out. "These achievements are something in which I think we can justly take a certain measure of credit, not because a certain amount of money has been saved," said Mr. Hislop, "but because, in the face of many difficulties, we have been able to restore the financial stability of the city while maintaining the city services at their necessary high and efficient level."