RATE COLLECTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 24 May 1934, Page 6

RATE COLLECTION

IN KIWITEA COUNTY. 93 PER CENT. PAID. The fact that f past year s rates had d in addition to over 60 per cent, ot the rate arrears outstanding w . - ss £*& of jizr Council, yesterday, the speaker attributing the rise m wool prices in January as a contributing facmr to the satisfactory position. . ~ “We commenced the year on April 1, 1933, with a credit balance of £31,7 iA the county account, said the chairman, “and the council ’pooio the year with a credit balance of £2848 Is 3d, notwithstanding the fact that the Government withheld payment ; of the advance subsidy on general rates. “The sudden jump in wool prices at tlie January sales and the satisfactory prices obtained at subsequent were salvation for local bodies,, tne speaker continued, “and county councils in particular, as up to that time the position seemed hopeless, and the outlook gloomy in so far as the collection of rates was concerned. The position of the dairy farmer, unfortunately, is not so good, and unless a considerable improvement is shown in the butter market during the next few months many ratepayers will not be able to pay the current year s rates. I am of the opinion that conditions will return to normal without the aid of quotas or any change in the currency system. The rise in wool prices was chiefly responsible for the collection of over 60 per cent, of the arrears and 93 per cent, of the past year’s rates. “A separate rate of 3-16ths of a penny in the £1 was levied to provide the council’s contribution towards the upkeep and maintenance of the Palmerston North Hospital. In former years the levy was paid out of the general account. Notwithstanding a reduction of over 25 per cent, in rateable values as a result of a revaluation of the county, the general and hospital rates combined did not exceed the general rate levied in the various riding during the year ended March 31, 1933,” the speaker concluded.