CITY FINANCES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 13 November 1922, Page 7

CITY FINANCES

SUB-COMMITTEE'S REPORT

A COUNCILLOR'S FIGURES QUES TIONEI)

At the meeting of the City fViiltnl a fortnight ago. "TTr. Uarley referred to the financial position as very senous, iind quoted figures in support of his argument. The Mayor expressed the opinion at the time that Cr. Uarley s figures were not correct, and it ivas decided to refer the matter of the (leuoral Account to a sub-committee of the Mavor and Crs. Edwards and Nightingale to report back to the Council. At Friday night s meeting the sub-committee reported as fol-

lows: (a) That it lias gone very earelully into the financial' position of the General Account and finds that the Council has a balance <>r approximately £5373 estimated income tor the the months remaining of the present finan-

cial vcar. , (b) The Committee I'ecomnicnds that the sum of £I3BO be transferred from the Gas Account to the General Account as follows:—lnterest on capital £BBO being 5 per cent,, on the original loan of £17.600 and £IOOO accumulated

profits. This will make the estimated income for the above period £7253, which With strict economy slitwld see I lie Council safely through the remainder of the financial year. (c) The above figures are arrived at ajter taking credit for refunds from the Poppy Uav effort iind sale of Hooker tto'ad I a tut amounting in £471. before the report was adopted Cr. Moffatt said he would like u little more consideration to be given to ihe matter of transferring the £I3BO, from the Gas Account to the General Account. . . In moving that the report Cr. Surrell wished to thank the Town Clerk for the figures submitted. After what Cr. Uarley had said at the previosu meeting that the Council had only £BOO to come, and go on he (the speaker) had "got the wind up," hut the position as shown by the report submitted had relieved his mind considerably, and the sub-coiamitteo wag to be congratulated. Cr. Hiti'leV, in future, should be more careful in making such statements.

THE PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW Cr. Harlev said he thought the .public should 'know exactly how .things were. From a business point of view £BOO was the correct balance. The last three years* losses were over £2OOO, and no amount of shuffling with this year's accounts would get rid of this loss. As a matter of fact, in an ordinary business account this loss would have'been carried forward and made good out o! this year's profits. Bui bv an extraordinary stroke of good luck, by the funding of the loss of last year owing to the new regulations, the Council had got rid of the antecedent liability. As a direct result of the funding of the antecedent liability they were able to steal £1440 of last year's rates, which belonged to last year's expenditure ■ ' The Mayor: That goes on overy year. Cr. Harley: No. Another point, went on Cr. Harley, was that the Council sold a road for which thev got £240 "absolutely out !<>f the blue." Tire Council could not claim credit for that. Cr. Coltman: Perks? Cr. Harlev: Yes.

Continuing, Or. Harley, turning to the Mayor, said: "You are adopting the same subterfuge as you did before and are taking money from the gasworks to cover up expenditure. The public should know this." Or. Harley added that lie was riot present at the meeting when the matter was discussed. The Mayor:. You should have been. Cr. Harley: I was out of town at the time. - Proceeding, Cr. Harley said £IO,OOO accumulated profits out of the gasworks had been collared and he ventured to suggest that it was not proposed to pay the gasworks the £I22Q transferred from the gas to the" General Account, "Then you wave the flag and crow." Cr. Harley went on to lake strong exception to the action of the sub-committee in transferring the money without consulting the Council. And the General Account did not want it. He contended the Council should not start to borrow money until they had spent what they had. He looked upon this as a very'high-handed proceeding. The Council "did 'not have £7OOO to spend, and they had no right to spend what they did not have. Or. Moffatt: How much have we got. Cr. Harley: About £4900. Of this sum £3600 was forced on us by beneficent legislation. Cr. Watson said that some years ago thev had £BSO vcarly from the gasworks, but after the gasholder was erected they had to forego this. He agreed that economy should be studied.

''ABSOLUTELY ERRONEOUS" The Mavor said that if the press had taken notice of Cr. Barley's remarks made at the previous meeting there would have been quite a panic in the town. Cr. Barley: There was a panic m the Council. The Mayor: An absolutely erroneous statement. • The Mavor went on to give Cr. Barley credit'for taking an interest: in the finances of the Council, but after the misleading statement lie had made a fortnight, ago he (the Mayor) would take no notice of his figures any more. The onlv point Cr. Barley had made was transferring the £IBOO from the flap-works Account without authority. But - the money was there, and the Council need not. adopt the report unless it wanted to. The gasworks was £4OOO to £SOOO in credit, and the subcommittee, after consulting the Engineer, war, -satisfied that there was enough money to go on with. Cr. Barley had not'stated the position at all correctly that night. Be had left out altogether the- value of tho stoclc of metal, sand, tarred screenings, etc. in hand, amounting to £ll6l/16/-, which had not been credited to the General Account. The Mayor also quoted a number of other items (including £9OO balance, of rates to September 30, 1922) which he said Cr. Barley should have included in bis statement but had not done so. The sub-committee's report showed the exact position of the Council that day. Then Cr. Barley spoke about crowing. There was not the slightest bit of crowing iii_ the report ; it showed the exact position of the Council tlyit day. "If the position had been as stated by Cr. Barley," went on the Mayor. "I should have moved a resolution to get, rid of the executive staff. They are the men to keep the books, and they know very well that if the Council 'overrun the monkey' we would have to pay out of our own pockets." The Council was in a ten times better position than Cr. Barley said they were, and could see their way through during: the next six months. The Mayor said 'that what lie had stated was without any feeling. The gasworks owed the Council money and they took it. He admitted that the sub-committee had no right to Transfer the money, and he gave Cr. Barley credit for saying that the subcommittee made sure of it.

COUNCIL'S EXACT' POSITION Cr. Stringer thought Cr. Tlarley should be congratulated on his remarks at the former meeting of the Council, for that evening the Council knew its exact position. Cr. 'Moffatt admitted that Cr. Earley had made rather a strong point that the £I4OO uncollected rates should have been used to liquidate in the ordinary way. But the money had been used in acced.ing to the requests of objects for certain works asked for; and in an ' ordinary business way lie was perfectly justified in saying ;(. lint there had been no crowing. Cr. Ilarley: There was no suggestion of the Committee crowing; the crowing was. done here. (In the Council). In fhe course of furl her remarks, Cr. Moffatt said he. wanted In. p n |, Hie finances on ;t fair and square basis. In the oimunfctanees the Council was quite justified in taking advantage of the position brought about by legislation to enable them tfo make provision for the future. Cr. Harley: By way of personal explanation— The Mayor: Von cannot make a per-

sonal explanation, unless you have been misrepresented.

FIGURES GENUINE

Cr. Edwards said there was no transfer from the gasworks last year from profits. He thought the Engineer would bear him out in stating that they had a, considerable stock of co.'l! in hand just before the close of the year, which would affect the position very much. He was perfectly satisfied that the figures brought forward by _ the subcommittee were genuine. ;l Az regards crowing about transferring front the gasworks'; we expect to make money out of the gasworks',- so 1 don't thinkthere is anything to er'<rw about. think we ought to get more' from " u ' gasworks." Congratulations were offered Cr. -Harley by Cr. Nightingale on the clever way 1W had maintained this position. But his statements were somewhat misleading. They knew that the antecedent liability would be wiped oft. "It was quite an erroneous statement to say that we steal from the gasworks/' he Went on. The gasworku owed the Council £IBOO and thev took £I7OO. Regarding the £I4OO uncollected rates, he said there must always be a certain amount of debit and credit at the end of a financial year; and he. defied any councillor to clear up accounts at the end of March. If rates were owing at 31st March they must be taken into account. The arguments oi Cr. Uarley were erroneous and misleading; and the report brought forward was quite correct. Cr. Uarley: If you will allow me to draw your attention to the fact, my figures were definitely stated to be estimated ' receipts and actual expendi'lire. The sub-committee's report is based on actual receipts and actual expenditure. The Engineer remarked that, the revenue from the gasworks was for the purpose* of paying dividends to shareholders. The General Account was not losing anything at all bv not getting its £BSO.

In reply, Cr. Surrell said all he wanted to say was that he was very pleased indeed with the pub-commit-tee's report. The motion to adopt the report was then put and carried.