HARBOUR BOARD FINANCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2985, 31 May 1911, Page 7

HARBOUR BOARD FINANCES.

STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN. "THE POSITION IS NOT ROSY." MEMBERS TAKE A MORE HOPEFUL VIEW. An important statement on Otago Harbour Board finances was laid before the board on Thursday afternoon by ifche chair man (Mr Belcher). The Chairman said that the present board, being a new board, constituted altogether differently from what it had been in the past, with a very much wider area represented than was previously the' case, and seeing there were several new members on the board, it was his duty as chairman to give members an indication as to how the board stood in regard to its finances. For the purpose of doing that ho had prepared some fig-ures for tibeir information. Ho had taken tho last three years' expenditure and tho last three years' income, and hd had averaged it for one year. He had taken that course because large expenditure and . largo incomes sometimes occurred in different years, and it seemed to him the fair thing to do was to take three years' operations and divide by three. Ho had to say that the position did not look very rosv at all. The figures for the three yea,rs—lßo3. 1909, and 1910,—treated in this way, showed : —• Revenue. Endowments and rentals £11,173 Dues on goods— Inwards 37,951 Outwards 5,269 Receiving and delivering cargo ... 3,872 Pilotage 12,773 Port charges ; 4,995 Licenses 87 Exemptions from pilotage 44 Berthage 3,146 Towage 1.545 Cranes 201 Storage and incidentals 2,376 Total £33,445 EXPENDITUBE. Total debt, including dock liability, £904,500. —Annual interest on debt ;• ...£45,403 Secretary, treasurer, and engineering departments 4,542 Works out of revenue 37,445 Miscellaneous ' 824 Dock guarantee 1,000 Total expenditure ... £89,224 Total revenue 83,445 Excess of expenditure over revenue £5,779 Therefore the operations -of the board for one year showed a deficit of, practically, £6OOO. With regard to the loan account, there was the Harbour Board loan of £IOO,OOO, which was current at the present time. Of that loan there was unexpended a sum of £29,306. As for the dock loan, he did not know the amount of it originally, but there was ostensibly a turther sum of £15,707 to its credit. Mr Barclay: It is a £IOO,OOO dock loan which has been all raised, and there is £15,000 unexpended. The Chairman continued that ithat was practically the position of the board's finances for the last three years. It was only right and proper that members should face the position and see what they were going to do to make both ends-meet. He was not going to worry his head a little bit as to how the loan money and that kind of thing could be interfered with, but there was one thing very certain: they would have to stop this drift, and the way in which to stop it was what the board should take into earnest and serious consideration. —("Hoar, hear.") There were two or three ways of doing it. It had been suggested that Otago should be made ■a free port. That cry was in the air all the time—" Make Otago a free port." He could not see for tho life of him how, with a deficit of £6OOO practically in one year, they were goinpr to make the port free. To get revenue to meet their liabilities they, must do one of three {ibings—'l) reduce the expenditure," (2) increase the dues, or (3) go a step further and see what possibility there was of creating a rateable area in which to get their revenue with a view to making the port free. He wished to point this out: The expenditure on works out of revenue amounted to £37,445, and that amount, added to the interest (£45,000) practically ate up the £83,000 of ineomlei. He wished members to take time to look into this state of things in order to suggest means to alter the position. An artificial waterway of 16 or 17 miles that must be maintained to keep the depths they had at present would require all their machines being kept going all 'the time. If they knocked off the dredges and so decreased the expenditure, which would be an easy way of reducing the bill, thev would not only allow the channels to silt up, but they would be doing an injustice to the large body of men employed on the dredges. Tho interests of the port came first, and the maintenance of the channel was tho principal essential they had to look to. The machines must be kept going, and the cost of doing it was £37,000 per annum. Then, to attempt to do anything in the way of increasing the dues would, in his opinion, be even more unpopular than any attempt to curtail the expenditure in that way, and it would certainly not bo in the direction of making the port free. A deputation before the board only that day asked it to reduce dues, and people were always coming to members of the board asking for a reduction here, there, and in other places. Averaging the dues charged in Obago on ships and goods, and comparing the result with the dues paid in other ports, Dunedin came out about the same, and in some cases a little below. Tho ports had different ways cf administering their_ dues. In some cases Dunedin charged higher than other ports and other places again charged higher in some cases than Dunedin did, but when the whole thing came to be averaged throughout the Dominion Dunedin coinpared very favourably with the other ports in respect to its charges. The difficulty they had to face was to keep up their expensive dredging plant. It was, however, absolutely necessary that they should go on with the dredging. on 9 remarkable thing was the amount of dues received on goods outwards —£5269—as compared with £37.954 imposed on goods inwards. Ho thought this was accounted for to a very large extent by the amount of produce that practically went past Dunedin.—(" Hear, hear.") They had only to go to the Rail-

' way Station at any time of the year when the- freezing 1 season was on to see the hundreds of tons of stuff going to Canterbury—chiefly sheep from places outside of Duncdin. How that trade could bo diverted and sent from Dunedin was a matter for consideration. Possibly it could bo done. Sheep raisers, however, would undoubtedly send their goods where they would become " Prim© Canterbury" mutton, the sheep \ thus branded bringing £d to Id per lb more j than if shipped from Dunedin. He had got ' from the secretary an estimate of the receipts and alio of the- expenditure for the poming year. This was another remarkable document which showed things in a pretty ugly light. The estimated receipts for tho incoming year, based on previous years' experience, was £87,026, while the estimated expenditure was assessed at £101,190, being a deficit on the year's working of £14,164. That was the position tho board's finances wore in. He asked them what they were going to do in the matter—how were they going to meet the bill ? Ho put the position bafore them so that they could take precautions to try to make both ends meet. There were one or two items mentioned in this year's expenditure which would not occur next year. For instance, £BOO had been spent on tho elections. Mr Barclay : That is worth taking a note of. The votes must have cost £1 each. Tho Chairman: Tho total amount of nonrecurring expenditure would como to £2OOO or £3OOO, which would not make very much difference to the grand total. Mr Barclay said that while the expenditure would appear to be exceeding their income, it must not be forgotten that the board had been building up a very valuable property. He instanced the reclaimed ground at Pelichet Bay _ which was now nearly ready for occupation. In regard to the difference between the receipts from imports and exports, ho had drawn attention to this disparity in his statement at the end of the financial year. The board's rates were lower than in almost any ouier part of the Dominion and yet it did not get tho business.. Mr Hamel said he would like to voice the feeling of thanks of every member of the board to their chairman for the very clear statement he had placed before them. In regard to the figures submitted, he considered there was really nothing to be concerned about in view of the fact that the board had a considerable amount of loan money unexpended at present, and also because of the amount of revenue obtainable from the endowments, a sum of £11,095. This showed, working the figures out roughly, that their properties carried a oanitaJised value of £223,000. Mr Loudon said he thouarht the position was not so gloomy as might be expected, but it was certain thev must put their finances in order. It was also essential that the whole incidence of charging dues and other revenue should be carefully reviewed. Mr Keast said the board and the public must feel grateful to tho chairman for hie statement of the finances. a The Chairman said he did not wish to appear as an alarmist, nor did he desire it to go through the Dominion that the board was on the verge of bankruptcy. Mr Loudon: Because wo are not. The Chairman: No. I recognise that perfectly well: but we have to do something to stop this dr'ft and we cannot go on as we are at the oresent moment. I n.m under the impression that, when the full board meets, with the amount of knowlodge of financa there is amonar_ members, we will be able to do something in the direction of making our revenue meet the expenditure.—(" Hear, hear.")