BOROUGH FINANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4418, 13 November 1934, Page 2

BOROUGH FINANCE.

TREASURER’S STATEMENT. The treasurer reported as follows at last night’s meeting of the Foxton Borough Council: — During the month of October the sum of £1,099 7/11 was received and has been banked to the District Fund Account, The state of the various ledger accounts at the 31st October was as follows: —

Accounts at debit totalled £5,586 0/5, and were made up as follows: Gasworks £1,845 3/8, General £l,405 17/2, Hospital Board £36 13/4, Interest £1,072 14/6, Town Hall £1,225 11/9.

’The accounts at credit totalled £2,478 15/11, and were as follows: Rate Arrears £1,351 14/9, Cemetery £133 11/2, Heavy Traffic £96 15/5, Library £2 2/9, Reserves £129 0/9, Worker’s Dwelling £3 12/2, Waterworks £522 9/4. THE BALANCE SHEET. The balance-sheet for the year ended March 31st, 1934, duly audited, was tabled by the Clerk and a letter read from the Audit Office drawing attention to the two following “tags” enfaced on the certificate of audit:—

(1) The Depreciation Reserve of the gasworks undertaking-has not been invested with Depreciation Fund Commissions as required by Section 49, Municipal Corporations Amendment Act, 1928. (2) The bank Overdraft exceeds the limit allowed by Sections 3 (2) (c) Local Bodies Finance Act, 1921-22. The Audit Office asked the Council to advise what steps it intended to take to carry out the requirements of the Act.

The Mayor (Mr M. E. Perreau) : The “tags” are the usual ones. We have had them for years.

The Clerk (Mr W. Trueman) said he had explained the “tags” at great length on previous occasions. The Act was somewhat drastic.' It stipulated that, the 'Council shall not have an overdraft in excess of the revenue outstanding for any particular year. If, for instance, the Council had an overdraft of £2OOO at the beginning of the year and finished that year with an overdraft of £3OOO and had £2OOO outstanding the Council incurred a 1 tag despite the fact that the overdraft at the end of the year included the overdraft at the beginning of the year. A remedy for this would lie to increase the Council’s revenue and that meant increased taxation. This, in his opinion, would be somewhat harsh on the townspeople who would be only further penalised. Cr. Wm. Nye: The Council can gain nothing by doing that. Ultimately we will be worse off. The Mayor: Still it is somewhat unfair to the clerk to have these tags. It might cause some people to think erroneously that the accounts are not kept properly. There is nothing of that but, nevertheless, there is a certain amount of odium attached to a tag as far as the clerk is concerned.

The Clerk: Tam willing to put up with that rather than see an increase in rates merely to wipe the “tag” out. Referring to the second “tag” the -clerk said it was compulsory for the Council to set aside a certain sum annually to meet future renewals at the gas works. The Act, however, provided that any such sums once appropriated, must be invested with a Sinking Fund Commissioner. The council can fund the account and do away with one tag merely by writing out a cheque for the amount, involved, but this would increase the overdraft and cost the Council an > additional £4 or £5 a year,

Cr. D. R. Barron .said he considered the clerk should be con-gßS-tulated on the fact that the balance-sheet did not. carry any other “tags.” . The “tags” under discussion were enfaced on the balance-sheet 'fear after year and the Council expected to get them again this year. The Clerk had a clean sheet as far as he was personally concern6d. The responsibility was not his but the Council’s. After some/'further discussion the balance-sheet was adopted and the clerk was deputed to wait on the Auditor-General when in Wellington and fully discuss the Board’s position.