CENTENNIAL FUNDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22917, 21 December 1937, Page 15

CENTENNIAL FUNDS

ASSESSMENT OF DONATION QUESTIONS ABOUT BASIS POWER BOARD DISCUSSION The basis of assessment of a donatioq of £SO requested by the Auckland Provincial Centennial Council formed the subject of a brisk discussion at a meeting of the Waitemata Electric-Power Board yesterday. The chairman, Mr. W. R. T. Leighton, moved that tha board contribute the amount, as requested, but several members contended that the board should be furnished with the details of the assessment. "1 cannot support the motion," said Mr. J. Guiniven. "I feel that we should have the full details in black and white placed before us."

Air. W. B. Dellow: We have a duty to support the chairman, who was our delegate at the meeting of the council, and I think that the request should be granted. The work is for the whole of Auckland; the council is doing great work, and we should treat the matter broadly. The chairman said that he would not have put the motion if he had not thought the amount reasonable. Mr. W. A. Bishop thought that the amount was very small, although the board should know the details. However, the board would go down in his estimation and that of its consumers if it did not make the contribution of £SO to the centennial funds. The discussion was very petty. "I will move that the matter be deferred to the next meeting for further particulars," said Mr. Guiniven. "I don't believe in agreeing, as a trustee of the public, in making donations without a definite basis of assessment. In fact, I think the motion is out of order." The Chairman: I agreed that the board would pay its share of the funds to be raised. The council has assessed that share as £SO. The amendment was lost after a division had been called for, and the donation of £SO approved, with four dissentients. A sum of £IBO was voted to the funds of the New Zealand Centennary Exhibition, 1940, the amount being pavable in three yearly instalments of £6O.