BOROUGH FINANCES.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12950, 15 May 1935, Page 5

BOROUGH FINANCES.

THE COMMITMENTS AHEAD. WILD THE RATE BE RAISED? The Mayor (Mr J. D. Wilson) statat Monday night’s meeting of the Borough Council that Main Street and Mangahao Road would have to be re-tarred and he thought it best to leave it till later in the year when the County Council called tenders for further big tar-sealing works and a better price for the borough job might then be obtained. Tiraumea Road could be tarsealed at that stage also. It had been hoped to do all this work last autumn but the exjieeted move did not come from the Main Highways Board. Or. J. W. Sturton said the main road certainly wanted touching up badly. Cr. J. E. Murphy: “Yes, it is bad all right.” * The Mayor moved that the consulting engineers, Messrs Seaton, Sladden and Pavitt, be instructed to prepare specifications for the tarsealing of Main Street and Mangahao Road, and also advise the Council of the estimated cost of such work, so that application could be then made to the Main Highways Board.

This was seconded by Cr. J. W. Sturton and carried. When the financial statement was before the Council it disclosed a credit balance at the 30th April of £899 11s.

Mr Wilson said that figures published regarding borough finances had been hairdly correct. The Council certainly had a very large credit in the bank at the end of February as portion of the rates were collected that month. But during March the Council had very heavy commitments which reduced the amount to less than £l,lOO. Included in the credit balance were all the special rates, the children’s playground account, Carnival Park account and War Memorial account. The actual balance in the general account at 31st March was £839 16s 2d. At the beginning of last year the credit was £1,604 10s 7d. The reduced balance this year was accounted for by the cost of extra kerbing round the remainder of the squares and the amount spent on the supplementary water supply. Work on the borough well had cost £325 16s 8d before March 3lst and the kerbing on the other town squares had cost £268 10s Bd. The present credit was not a large one. he contended, seeing that the Council had to go from now till October before very much revenue came in in the way of rates. To the credit of the Town Clerk (Mr D. D. Lovelock) it conkl be. said that 95 per cent, of the rates had been collected before March 31st last. The borough had to carry on from now till October, however, on very little revenue. There was the additional work at the well to be gone on with and it was quite possible that the Council would have to arrange a considerable overdraft to meet all its commitments. The balances at March 31st last with the various accounts were as follow: General Account, credit, £839 16s 2d ; Carnival Park, credit, £123 13s lid ; War Memorial, credit, £B4 6s 3d (fixed deposit Bank of New Zealand) - Children’s Playground, credit, £B7 7 s lid (fixed deposit Bank of New Zealand) ; heavy traffic fees, credit £4O 12s 6d ; Mangatainoka River Bridge, credit, £lB4 3s 2d (Post Office) ; Cemetery trustee, credit. £24 16s; total credit, £1,384 15s lid. Regarding the work to be tackled in the future, the most important was the well €»xtension. Then there were a number of wooden bridges in the town which would have to be replaced by concrete structures no doubt. Some were really too narrow for traffic. The whole question, of course, was one of funds. In the last two years the Council had reduced the rates, on account of the stringent conditions, by Id in the £ and so did not have so much money to spend in the general account. Besides the reduced rate, extra work had been accomplished and he thought the Council could take credit for having got through the past two years very well.

It would be for the Council to say in a month or two whether the rate should revert back to its former level. The work could only be done as the money was found and if the Council considered it advisable to increase the rates in order to effect further improvements, well and good.