PROCEDURE QUESTIONED

Manawatu Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 4600, 23 January 1936, Page 2

PROCEDURE QUESTIONED

FpXTON HARBOUR BOARD’S

RATE.

Whether the procedure undertaken by the Foxton Harbour Board for the raising of £1026 to buy a new launch Avas legal Avas the subject of correspondence and brief comment at the monthly meeting of the Kairanga County Council. A letter was received from the board directing the council to make, levy and collect a special rate to aggregate £lOl, in accordance with a motion passed by the board. The council decided, after a letter from Mr J. Nairn, of AAvapuni, had been read, that no action be takeg at, present and that the clerk should communicate with the Audit Department and also with the board. He Avill report to the next meeting of the council.

Mr. Nairn’s letter was as folloavs :—“I notice that the Foxton Harbour Board are making, and probably have made by this time, a demand for a sum of money to purchase a launch. Alloav me to say at once that the Foxton Harbour Board have no poAver whatever to strike a rate for such a purpose and as a ratepayer I hereby ask you to place on record my strongest objections.

“The only poAver the board has is in relation to the £16,000 loan, which I Avill not detail as your council long since should be in a position to know and have documentary evidence to refer to. However, if you. have not, I Avill briefly state pom papers I have before me Avhich Avill give you some information. “As the board has, hoAvever, in previous years paid the interest and sinking fund out of the general account, the collecting of the special, rate to meet these charges should make available in the general account, for the purpose of purchasing the launch, an amount equivalent to the amount of interest and sinking fund payments.’ “The propei*, and,.-1 venture to say, the legal procedure for the board to adopt, if the purchase of the launch is an absolute necessity, would be to arrange an overdraft at. the bank for the current year, adopt a policy (long overdue) of strict economy, and should their funds, after paying all running costs, be insufficient to meet the full amount required for the liability under section 12 of the Foxton Harbour Board Amendment Act, 1917, any shortage can be collected by striking a rate over the city of Paliherston North, the boroughs of Feildiug, Foxton, Levin and the counties of Mauawatu and Kairanga. As the rate cannot be struck during the financial year it is obvious that the present demand is illegal and quite out of order.” The clerk (Mr N. I. Nielsen) dealt briefly with the Acts under which the board Avas operating and remarked that Mr Naim Avas apparently (piite correct in what he stated. Howevor, the board could collect the special rate already empoAvered for the loan and pay the money for the launch out of the general account. He had been in - formed that the latest balancesheet had not vet been printed, but that for 1933-34 showed that the rate Arould have produced £B4O. The chairman (Cr. D. Collis) suggested that the matter should be held over for enquiries to be made further from the board and the Audit Department, .the clerk to report to the next meeting. That course was agreed to. '