LICENSING TRUST PROFITS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26200, 10 July 1946, Page 4

LICENSING TRUST PROFITS

Within two years of the commencement of its operations the Invercargill Licensing Trust has considered its financial position so secure that it has decided to distribute approximately half its annual profits to suitable organisations in the province. The decision was not made without some opposition. The trust has an overdraft of £236,000, and the opinions were expressed that this indebtedness should be reduced or the method of financing the trust altered before any sums were given away. It may be recalled that the question of making some portion of its profits available to selected organisations in the 'province was discussed previously by the trust. Last May a gift of £SOOO to the Southland Provincial Council of Sport towards the establishment of a sports centre was proposed, but unfavourable replies by the trust’s bank and the Minister of Justice, Mr Mason, resulted in a decision by the members of the trust not to make any contributions at the time. It now appears that a majority on the trust is determined to make some contribution at the earliest opportunity. Whatever may be the arguments for or against civic control of the sale of liquor, this decision by the Invercargill Trust will command the interest, if not the envy, of every civic authority in the Dominion. It was estimated recently by the chairman, Mr Hugh Ritchie, that the profits for the year would be between £14,000 and £15,000, As Invercargill grows in size, and the progressive people of Southland are determined that it shall, these profits will become correspondingly greater, and no special perspicacity is required to visualise the manner in which the city’s development might be assisted by a steady stream of contributions from the trust funds. It is not for Otago to dictate to her sister province how Invercargill should spend its own money, but the friendly suggestion might be made that the trust, before embarking on a spending scheme, should consider a long-range plan for assisting to establish assets of permanent value to the community as a whole, and not be stampeded into frittering away its funds on minor projects. The Act under which the trust is constituted provides that the net profits, “ or as much -thereof as the trust shall determine,” may be expended or distributed within the Southland Land District “ for the

promotion, advancement or encouragement of education, science, literature, art, physical welfare, and other cultural or recreational purposes,” or for the providing of buildings and facilities for these purposes or for philanthropic disbursements. The list is sufficiently wide to enable the trust to select some major project—assistance towards the establishment of a university college is one—and by guaranteeing it an income from the trust profits help to pi’ovide the city with an institution that will provide Southlanders with greater opportunities to win recognition in their own province.