BOROUGH FINANCES

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 March 1922, Page 5

BOROUGH FINANCES

AN IMPROVED POSITION. PREPARING FOR NEW LAW. The very welcome announcement was made by the Chairman of the FinanceCommittee (Cr. 11. E. Doogan) at last evening’s meeting of the Greymouth Borough Council, that the borough's financial position as at March 31st will be roughly £661 better than at -March 31st of the previous year. At the suggestion of the' Mayor (Air. J. D. Lynch), Cr. Doogan supplied the figures concerning the position. On March 31 of last year, he said, the net overdraft was £11,661. The overdialt on March 22 of this year was £4,861. Accounts, passed for payment, including salaries ami wages, amounted to £3,728. • The amount, of deposits was £1550, and the interest for tiie halfyear was (say) £470. Allowing £4OO for contingencies, the whole ol these amounts totalled about. £ll,OOO, which left them the better by about £661. It was recommended bv the committee, said Cr. Doogan, that ail accounts be collected, except those for the current .month, so that the amounts could come under the heading of antecedent liability. Under tin 1 provisions id' the Local Bodies’ Finance Act. their oveicrait had to bo cleared by either raising a loan, to be extended over an easy term, or by paying ulli their liabilities in seven equal annual payments, commencing in 1923. No iocal body could boriow more than threequarters of its revenue for the pluvious year, and il could mu be overdrawn at the end of the vear in a sum greater than llm ' uncollected portion of Ihe previous vear s rexenite, the object being probably t • prevent them from exceeding their re-xc-iue liom year to vear. In order to gel a reasonable start, it was iiece.- - r.v to clear up all outstanding accounts. Hie repoif was adopted. (I he Council s antecedent, liability, it may be explained, is tile overdraft, plus tin? amount ol deposits a> at -March 31.)