CITY LOANS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19009, 3 November 1923, Page 2

CITY LOANS.

Til AM WAYS AND PUBLIC WORKS. SUM OF £290.000 INVOLVED. Several important proposals for the raising of large public loans will come before tbe City Council at its meeting next week. The proposals are set out in the Finance and Works Committees reports. The Finance Committee reports that it has considered the financial bearing of the proposed tramways loan for the purpose of providing funds for extensions to the system, and additions to plant and rolling stock. The total cost of the several works is given by the committee as £68,550. There is, however, a further sum of £15,450, the estimated cost of the tramway provisions to meet the proposed Exhibition requirements should the Exhibition bo hold on Lake Logan. In addition, there is a sum of £6OOO required for shed facilities. The total of the proposed loan is therefore brought up to £90,000. The standing charges on this capital outlay would be £9262. The loan would require to be secured on a special rate of 2d in the pound. It will, of course, be understood that, in actual practice, the interest on the new loan and all other charges will ha a charge against (ho revenue of the deportment. 'llie committee therefore recommends that steps be taken to submit the loan proposals to the ratepayers in conjunction with the proposals for raising a loan for city works. The committee has considered the financial bearing of the proposal of the Public Works Committee in which (he council is recommended to seek authority to borrow the sum of £200,000 as a loan for permanent public works. It is intended that the sum named shall he expended oyer a period of five or six years, and it will be necessary to pledge as security a special rate of 4d in the pound on the rateable value of the city. The yearly additional charge on the general account for interest and sinking fund would be about £1960, assuming the yearly expenditure to be about £30,000. This additional yearly charge should bo met, to a very large extent, out of the normal yearly increase in the rateable valuation of the city. It is therefore recommended that the proposal ho submitted to the, vote of the ratepayers at the earliest convenient time, and jointly, with the proposal to raise a loan for tramway extensions. Authority has now been received from 1 the Minister of Internal Affairs for the raising of the additional sum of £6OOO required for the purpose of providing for exceptional and unforeseen expenditure in connection with the recent floods. The total authorisation is now £26,000 as applied' for by the council, and a special meeting of council is being called for the purpose of passing the authorising resolution to operate as a special order. In a supplementary report the Works Committee states that it has remitted to the Finance Committee the question of formulating loan proposals for the raising of a sum of £200,000 for street and other public work®, as a first portion of the contemplated works loan expenditure of £433,000 referred to in the report of the committee adopted by council on April 24 last. As pointed out in the previous report, the lean is intended to provide the funds for continuing the street paving works', the extension of Mailer street, Mornington, half cost of roads on Harbour Board’s lands, and a comprehensive schedule of permanent street improvements in the suburban areas. The expenditure of the £200,000 now proposed to be raised would bo spread over a period of five or six years, at the end of which neriod steps could be taken to raise the balance of the £433.000 for the completion of the whole of the works to be provided for.