PORT RATE TO BE LEVIED

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1932, Page 9

PORT RATE TO BE LEVIED

COLLECTION OF £22,000 AIMED AT 7 / HIGH EXCHANGE: LOW REVENUE POSITION OF THE HARBOUR BOARD / A KATE designed to produce £22,0Q0 is to be levied by the New. Plymouth Harbour Board through the various local bodies of the harbour district. The decision was made at a special meeting of the board yesterday, when it was stated the main reasons for the rate were decreases in trade, the receipt of less land revenue and rents, and the high exchange rates involved in the payment of interest on loans. _ . . hythe borough of New Plymouth the rate will be levied m November, and in other boroughs and counties in January or February. The rate is to be distributed over three areas. It is hoped to raise £14,000 from the No. 1 area, which includes the borough of ew Plymouth and that part of the Taranaki County from Pitone Road to the WaiOngona River and back to the Waiwakaiho Bridge on the Junction Road; £6OOO from No. 2 area, including the boroughs of Inglewood and,Stratford and parts Taranaki, Inglewood an Stratford counties; and £2OOO from the No. 3, or outer area, mclu ing the borough of Eltham, nearly the whole of the Whangamomona County, a small part of the Ohura, part of Eltham and Stratford counties and part of Egmont County, between Pitone and Nganki Roads,

in submitting to .the. board an' estimate of the income and expenditure of the board for: the -year ending September 30, .1932, the chairman (Mr. C. E- Bellringer) said it was impossible to . form anything like a" sure estimate, because they could not form any idea of how the trade of the port would-go in the next 12 months. The estimated figures quoted by the chairman were: —•

Keferrimr to the item of £6yio for contingencies, the .chairman said the board had to provide for various small payments, .including a debit balance of about £2OOO. After allowing for all the usual sources of income, the board found itself short by £22,000 and had to raise this by a rate. _ 1 . Briefly put, the causes leading to the ,strikino- of a rate were decreases in ! the trade of the port, less land revenue and rents, and higher exchange rates affection- the payment of interest on loans. ° ...... .. DROPS IN REVENUE. 1 In 1929, the board’s peak year, the income was £03,537 from port revenue, £4152 from rent endowments and £2567 from Government land revenue, a total of £70,256. In 1930 there was a decrease to £64,711, which was made up of £58,433 in port revenue, £2006 in Government land revenue and £4172 in endowment rents. Last year the port revenue, was £55,270, the Government land revenue £l6OB and the endowment rents £4343, a total of £61,221. For the five months of the current financial year the port revenue was a little over£2l,ooo’and it was hoped March would brine in about £4OOO. An estimate for the whole year of £50,000 had thus been arrived at. Land and endowment revenue was falling and had been allowed for at £5OOO, making an estimated total of £55,000 with which to meet an expenditure of £77,000. x It was therefore absolutely necessary to strike a rate in order to raise the balance, £22,000. Since 1929 the port revenue had dropped £15,000 and land revenue by about £l5OO. In the current year there would probably be £4OOO to find by way of exchange. Mr. Bellringer did not think the board could hope for an immediate large increase in the import trade. Whilst in the peak year, 1929, imports totalled 160,000 tons, last year they totalled only 108,000 \ tons. 1 The board had to face the position. It had interest and sinking fund to meet. It had made every economy, and had reduced working expenses to the limit. The chairman could not see how there could be any further decrease. It was necessary to keep up the amenities of/the port for the purposes of shipping. While the board certainly did not like striking a rate, it had a duty to keep the harbour efficient in order that trade might be carried on. No matter how repugnant a rate was, it was necessary to strike it. It was nearly 24 years since there had been a harbour rate. He hoped that with an improvement in trade the board would be able to dispense with the rate, but at the present time it was compelled to strike it. With the rate the board would just about balance its accounts. CONTRIBUTIONS OF AREAS. About £lO,OOO of the amount to be raised would come from the town of New Plymouth and £4OOO from that part of the Taranaki county within the No. 1 area. Thus £14,000 would be contributed from land within eight or ten miles of New Plymouth and the residents of which probably enjoyed most benefit from the harbour facilities. The / Ko* f ares, including the boroughs of

Stratford and Inglewood, would contribute about £6OOO, and the No. 3, or outer area, about £2OOO. The area from Hunter Road around the coast to the Oounake Harbour Board’s district would not pay any rate . at all. This wrose out of the Harbour Act of 1908, when it was promised that district would be excluded; land and endowment..revenue and £4500 of the port revenue was then definitely pledged . to the purpose of loans. 1 “We must meet our engagements tor interest and sinking fund and nothing less than the amount indicated will serve our- requirements for the year, said the chairman in moving the adoption of the formal proposal. -Mr. D. J. Malone seconded the motion. The rate would l be collected through the local bodies in the harbour district, explained the chairman. In the. bdrough of New Plymouth it would be levied about November, while in the other boroughs and counties it would be collectable in January or February, according to the time they levied their rates. Notices would be sent out by the local bodies, which would pay the amount collected to the board. The local bodies would be paid a commission for collection to be agreed upon. Apart from those in the No. 1 area, the ratepayers would not be called on to pay for another 12 months. In the meantime the board would finance against the rate foi part of its interest. After sayina that the board absolutely no alternative to a rate, Mr. E. Maxwell emphasised one or two pointe that he considered the public should know. In the first place he pointed out that the board actually had power to rate up to £50,000; therefore the present, levy, the first in 24 years, would bring in less than half of what the board might legally collect. When advocating the loan of 1908 the ratepayers were given an assurance that no rate would be . levied for at least ten years, yet the board had gone on till now without striking a rate. Under the 1908 Act land’revenue, endowment revenue, and at least £4500 of ..the board’s ordinary revenue was ear-marked for interest and sinking fund commitments and the amounts obtainable-from these sources had to’ be exhausted before a rate could be struck. HAD NOT EXERCISED POWERS. The board had, however, had to meet payments considerably in excess of the earmarked funds; nevertheless, though it could have called upon the ratepayers, to make good the difference between these funds and outgoings amounting to thousands of pounds, it had never exercised its rights during the whole of the 24 years. In that period, up to September 30, 1931, the amount paid from the general fund to the interest and sinking fund was £380,750, which was no less than £278,750 in excess of the amount required by the Act of 1908. The board l ad therefore kept very well within its undertaking when, in buildinn- the port to modern overseas status, it°had paid from its general fund £278,750 more than it need have without striking a rate. • At last, however, the board had arrived at the unfortunate necessity of asking the ratepayers for £22,000, about a third of which was required to meet the adverse exchange rate. The board had paid for its activities out of its ordinary revenue for 24 years. No one could have anticipated this great slump and the adverse exchange rate that had forced the hands of the board. Mr. Maxwell said he hoped that before the time came to collect the rate prices of dairy produce and conditions generally would have improved sufficiently to ease the position. “The position to-day would have been very much worse if the board had spent £350,000 on a new wharf,” said the chairman. “Had we gone on with that at least another £21,000 would have had to be collected by way of rate.” He pointed out that the board had authority to raise £600,000 by loan, but had borrowed only £250,000 of that amount. The port had been of ’ immense value to the district and at a low estimate had saved the district £1 a ton on imports during the past three years, or more than £500,000. Mr. W. T- Wells suggested that practically every harbour board in New Zealand levied a rate. ' * ENDOWMENTS AT AUCKLAND. The chairman said that those boards with rating powers did strike a rate. Wellington and Auckland dffi not have euch powers, but they had valuable endowments, from which the Auckland board derived about £55,000 a year and Wellington an amount running into, thousands of pounds. There was no port in the Dominion that was not at present feeling the pinch. New Flymouth was holding its own in its export trade, though the imports had dropped.

Mr. Wells: I think Auckland and Wellington are showing bigger decreases in revenue than New Plymouth in proportion to (he sizes of the. ports. Mr. Wells agreed that there was a limit beyond’which the board could not o-o in making economies by reducing staff. ■ The chairman said the amenities or the port must be kept up. It had been su°°esfed the shipping companies should. be°taxed, but they were up against it, too. ■ ■ , . . ■ '. Following the carrying of the main resolution, the board decided .to instruct its solicitors to take the steps necessary for the striking and collection of the rate through the local bodies, .to which plans showing the several rating areas will be sent. . Earlier in the meeting, the chairman, in commenting on the, harbourmasters report for February, said the moiith had been an exceptionally good one. The revenue in February was £6300, about £3OOO better than in the corresponding month last year. The Port Alma, due on Monday with 4000 tons of slag, etc., would give March a boost, though it mifht not reach the total of March, 1931. /The months varied a. good deal. For the first five months of the board’s financial year the port revenue totalled £21,000, compared with £24,000 for the corresponding’ period last year. Mr. Wells said that one of the penalties of becoming overseas port was the loss of a certain amount of coastal trade. .

INTER-COLONIAL TRADE HOLDS.

The chairman said that although that was so, intercolonial trade was holding up well. Lorries were now carrying some of the cargo that used to come by coastaT steamer. The growth of overseas trade meant that less transhipment from Wellington was necessary. Mr. Wells said it meant a big thing, to the province to have a deep-sea port. The chairman said that of the port trade of 108,297 tons last year, .47,907 tons represented direct import trade. On this there would be a saving of £1 a ton. '

Mr. J. R. Cruickshank: Easily that. The text of the formal resolution

That the New Plymouth Harbour Board by special resolution made in pursuance and exercise of the powers in this behalf vested in it by section 84 of the Harbours Act, 1923, doth hereby direct that for the purpose of providing the annual charges upon moneys borrowed under the authority of the New Plymouth Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1918, a special rate be made and levied upon all rateable property within the board’s harbour district as defined in the first schedule to the New Plymouth Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1908, for the year commencing on October 1, 1931, and ending on September 30, 1932, and that the amount of such special rate shall be one-fourth of a penny in the pound upon the capital value of all rateable property in the area described in the second schedule to the New Plymouth Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1908, one-sixth of a penny in the pound upon the capital value of all rateable property described in the third schedule to the New Plymouth Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1908, and one-twelfth of a penny in the pound upon the capital value of all property described in the first schedule to the New Plymouth Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1918, and the board doth hereby also direct that for the purpose of providing the annual charges upon moneys borrowed under the authority of the New Plymouth Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1924, a special rate be made and levied upon all rateable property within the board’s harbour district as defined in the first schedule to the said last-men-tioned Act for the year commencing on October 1, 1931, and ending on September 30, 1932, and that the amount of such special rate, shall be one-fourth of a penny in the pound upon the capital value of all property in the area described in the second schedule to the said last-mentioned Act, one-sixth of a penny in the pound upon the capital value of all rateable property described in the third schedule to the said Act, and one-twelfth of a penny in the pound upon the capital value of all property described in the fourth schedule to the said Act.

Expenditure. ’ £ Working port ... . . .. • • - Maintenance dredging . . 9,500 . 4,500 • Interest on overdraft . , 1,000 . 1,000 10,000 . 44,475 ( Sinking funds . . 5,750 / J 50,225 . 4,000 54,225 70,225 Contingencies • • • 6,775 £77,000 • Income. £ £ Port revenue . 50,000 Land revenue ,• 1,000 Rents endowments .... . 4,000 55,000 I . 22,000 77,000 — £77,000