WELLINGTON FINANCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21160, 18 April 1932, Page 11

WELLINGTON FINANCES.

BUDGET NEARLY BALANCED. CLEAR OUTLOOK FOR YEAR. It was announced at a meeting of the Wellington City Council last week that the result of the economies practised during the past financial year had exceeded all expectations. The Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Ilislop, sfatH 'that the deficit of £22.000, which hid faced the incoming council, had been reduced to £IOO. The Mayor said that when the present council came into office some two months after the beginnii g of the last financial year they had t< face a deficit of between £22,000 am £23,000, together with a very difficult ear ahead. They had started that year with very much less income than had been available in the .previous period. They had been obliged to curtail a considerable number of their votes and to exer :ise a very rigid degree of economy in ot her directions. He had hoped that as a result of the economies made the deficit vvould be reduced from £22,000 to about £II,OOO and before the end of the year- he had considered it wise to make still further curtailments, but the results v,ere very different from what he had anticipated or hoped for. "The position s," said the Mayor, "that we have unded the year with a debit balance of £IOO. Practically the whole of the defi:it has been wiped off.

"Our payments, have included £I7OO to the Civic Inquiry Commission and, when the allocation of this payment is dealt with, it may be found proper to charge some of it to the departments which were investigated. If this were done —it could not be done at tile time—we would end the year with a small surplus."