FINANCIAL SIDE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2667, 8 September 1937, Page 3

FINANCIAL SIDE

ADJUSTMENTS MADE WAIHI’S CONTRIBUTION VALUATION OF BOROUGH ESTIMATED LEVIES COMPARED.

The financial adjustments consequent upon amalgamation, set out by Mr Levien, were similar to those agreed upon at a conference after the Commission’s sitting ha# concluded. That conference of the parties interested, (other than Coromandel) passed resolutions that in the event of amalgamation the Waihi Borough Council should agree to an adjustment of the levy among the constituent portions of the new district. Briefly, those conditions were : Waihi valuation to be £560,000; 20 per cent, of gold duty to be specially contributed by Waihi, reduced by 2 per cent, each year to 10 per cent, in the sixth year and thereafter. Position of Waihi Borough. The Government was also asked to find £750 for the first year reduced by £l5O each year. Mr Levien made the following reference to the Waihi valuation : “In explanation it may be stated that for many years it had been contended that the rateable capital value of Waihi at £283,027 was absurdly low, as compared to boroughs of a similar size, and that the gold duty received by the Waihi borough — taken at approximately £5500 per annum—should be capitalised on the basis of £9O of rateable capital value for each one pound of gold duty, thus adding £495,000 to the rateable capital value of Waihi borough. An annual average sum of £lO,OOO by way of gold duty and revenue was received by this borough during the past 26 years.

“It is impossible to state how the basis of £9O to £1 was arrived at. However, the changed circumstances of the Waihi goldfield and the present precarious aids to the value of gold won, influenced the parties interested in fixing £560,000 as the rateable capital value of Waihi borough for purposes of assessing hospital levies.” Estimated Levies. The following table shows the levy for 1935-36 and the estimated levy under amalgamation : Board Comparison 1935-36 1936-37 £ £ Thames 6469 7070 Increase £6Ol Waihi 2357 1970 Decrease £387 Coromandel 2070 1010 Decrease £lO6O

Totals 10,896 10,050

“In view of the extra levies thus contributable by the contributing bodies to the Thames Hospital Board,” said Mr Levien, “it is suggested that if the economies following from amalgamation do not accrue as quickly as anticipated, the Government should undertake to make special grants sufficient to reimburse the Thames contributing authorities in respect of their extra levies. A similar undertaking was given by the Government to the Thames board in respect of expenditure exceeding £7OO per annum when the Paeroa maternity hospital was built. No call, however, was ever made upon the Government.” Coromandel Castigated.

Mr Levien added a memorandum of disagreement from the Coromandel Hospital Board written upon receipt by it of information showing a decrease of £lO6O, or over 50 per cent, on - the basis of its 1936-1937 levies consequent upon the proposed amalgamation.

“It is difficult to understand this attitude of the Coroipandel board,” he states. “At Paeroa the answers given by the secretary were far from satisfactory. In cross-examination, however, he stated that generally the attitude of his board was ‘one in favour of amalgamation.’ The chairman of the board said ‘I have orders against amalgamation for one reason — that we have never been informed what the amalgamation will amount to and we are simply working in the dark.’ Yet, when this darkness was lightened by information that the Coromandel county’s high hospital levy of over 5d in the pound was being halved his council unanimously carried a resolution ‘that on the information presented this board is decidedly against the suggested amalgamation <with Thames and Waihi’.”