HAWERA COUNTY COUNCIL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 20 June 1925, Page 7

HAWERA COUNTY COUNCIL.

SPECIAL MEETING

RATE OF ltd STRUCK

A special meeting of the Hawera Comity Council was held to-day to Consider estimates and the rates for the current year. There were present: Crs J. B. Murdoch (chair), T. A. Winks, C. J. Hawken, G. Williams, A. La room, NIL C. Lysaght, E. A. Washer and T. Walsh. The clerk (Air J. W. Harding) was also present. The chairman said the business was to strike the rate for the year. The council had to apportion the shares of the general account to be given to the ridings. Last year’s total rating was £40,293, comprising administration charges £2150, hospital £4213, wages, 'metal and materials £24,773, interest, etc., £5107, sinking funds £3497, sundries £460. He said the quantity of material shifted on county roads was 15,000 cubic yards. The cost of tar and metalling on riding roads was: Hawera £1134, Mokoia £9OO, Am rata £IOSO, a total of £3084. A rate of ltd in the £ would total about £25,000, so that the amount spent on reading absorbed the total of the rates struck. There would he some amounts to come for several loans authorised. To carry out anything like the works estimated the council would have to go very carefully, and last year it had run very close to the balance it had available; in fact, there had been practically no balance left. If the ratepayers wanted good roads they must have heavy rates, and roads would require a large revenue. He said that although the council’s rates seemed high, some other counties pair more, some up to 4d in the £, probably on an unimproved basis. Another had a. rate of 2d and a special rate on top of that, nearlv approaching the maximum of 3d allowed to be imposed. The Hawera rates, based on the high valuations, amounted to about 12s per acre on land, which used to be considered a rental. If the council were to improve the roads, as it wished to do, he considered it must raise a loan spread over a number of years. There was a mileage increase of nine to ten miles all finished last year out of revenue. If this increase was continued the council would have to raise a loan. The position would be pretty acute, hut councillors must remember that some of the items in expenditure would he wiped off in a few years—antecedent liability and interest £3389, which would come off in four years; hospital levy £2200, in nine years; and interest on big loan, which would expire in 13 years, so that the county by that time would he better off by £8971 per annum. The riding balances were in debit, hut they did not take into account the share of rates unpaid £4OOO. Hawera showed £llß2, Mokoia £2253, and Ararata £3235, and their shares of the rate would he £IBOO, £IOOO and £6BO respectively. Heavy expenditure would be necessary to get all the county reads into first-class order, hut genally speaking they were in good order. The council had last year done the heaviest work in the history of the county. Tt had wiped off the liability of 15 to 20 years ago by the antecedent liability payments. He considered the council should strike the same rate as last year, and if it did this it would be necessary to cut down some of the estimates in all the ridings, so that the council should not run so close as last year. In this way. by careful management, the council would he able to carry through. There was much work to he done.

Referring to Fraser Road, the chairman said that the £SOO asked for had been cut down by £2O, lie could not say why. In Ararata there was still £lO3 to come from the Public Works, and in addition there were amounts to come' on Arthur Street and Mason Road. Last year the receipts were £36,088 and expenditure £46,872, an excess of £10,784. They wished this year to avoid the position in which they were' last year. By cutting down excess of expenditure they would know what works could be done. They must try to make the expenditure fit the estimates. They had sent down last year wliat they were going to do, but unforeseen expenditure on account of bridges, totalling £IOOO, liad cropped up. This year they must make the expenditure come down nearer to the revenue, and for this reason they must cut down many items and much suggested road work could be cut out. The estimated expenditure was £53,185, £12,092- in excess of estimated receipts, and this must be reduced very much. Hawera riding works could, he believed, be reduced by £6900. The clerk said that while the estimates for 1925 showed an excess of expenditure of £10,784, there was absolutelv received and expended £36,347 and £42,670, the receipts being 259 in excess of the estimates, and the expenditure £4202 under the estimates. Cr Winks said the Highways Board pressed them to widen the roads, which in manv cases lie considered unnecessary. They had to cut down to what they considered their requirements. The chairman said that they had some such work where traffic required it, but in many cases lie was not at all in favour of doing the whole work. There were still jiortions, however, which he considered should be widened. Cr Winks said it was not fair to call on the county to do all this work. There were no better roads anywhere than in Taranaki, and they were quite sufficient to carry the traffic without widening. The Board was spending the money on the poor roads in other districts' at the expense of the counties with good roads. Cr Hawken said the Board was not taking into consideration the good roads here and was putting the funds into other roads. It was nbsolutlev wrong, and the main roads here were generally quite good enough to carry

the traffic. Counties with good roads were not assisted.

The chairman said it was impossible to do the work of widening. They should do' the essentail portions, but their roads in general were better than in the majority of cases in tire cities, if they were obliged to do the work they should get a. Joan.. They had built roads and were paying now for the. benefit of people in years to come. In reply to the chairman, the clerk said that interest and sinking fund were equal to id in the £, hospital to id. and administration Jd, and onethird of their revenue was going on roads, etc. Cr. Lysaght said it seemed to him that other counties were getting most of the expenditure. The chairman agreed. He added that they must keep within their means, but careful going lyould carry them through. If more was required a loan would be necessary. He propsed that they strike the same rate as last year, l£d in the .£. They could make big reductions in the estimates of expenditure. Each riding member should go through them to see where reductions could he effected. If they did all that was suggested, he doubted if a 2-J-d rate would accomplish it. The motion to strike the rate of 1-Id was carried. It was moved also that it be an instruction to riding representatives to go carefully over the estimates brought down and consider what amounts could be struck out. The clerk said that, based on rates collected, the riding shares of revenue were: Hawera £13,432; Molcoia. £8672; Ararata, £SOOO. Hawera had 69 roads mentioned, Mokoia 43, and Ararata 45. The chairman said that in regard to some roads done last year it would have been better had they not been done at all, on account of the inferior tar used. The general revenue was pooled and divided according to valuations. Tlie chairman, referring to the rating on some sections, said that some were valued at £BO, and would not fetch £7O now, while in some eases private valuations had reduced valuations by 28 per cent. He said they had,been promised that valuations were being done soon and 1 would be available for 1926. The motion re going over the estimates was carried.