HARBOUR BOARD FINANCES

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23288, 25 August 1945, Page 4

HARBOUR BOARD FINANCES

Government Subsidy Anticipated Present Debit Balance Exceeds £B6OO An application having been made to the Treasury Department, the Timaru Harbour Board hopes to receive a substantial Government subsidy to improve its financial position, which lias deteriorated during the war years because of centralisation of shipping. This statement was made by the chairman 'Mr R. S. Goodman) at a meeting of the Board yesterday. "Since the last meeting there has been a considerable amount of shipping, but, in spite of this, our revenue will not be increased by a great deal on that already estimated for the year ended September 30, 1945,” continued Mr Goodman. “Our debit balance at present stands at £8,623 but after paying all docking charges for dredge 350 and the final instalments for interest and repayments of loans, the debit balance should stand in the vicinity of £18,677 which is £2,232 less than estimated.” The Board began the current year with an overdraft of £4689 and, although completing the year with a fairly substantial deficit, they realised that a tremendous amount of good work has been done during the year, more particularly in dredging. Although the channel had been cleared of more than 500,000 tons of silt for the period under review, an immense amount of work remained to be done. There had been an accumulation of silt spread over a period of at least five years.. Dredge 350 had returned from Port Chalmers and was again in full commission. said Mr Goodman. The overhaul took eight weeks to complete at a cost of £BlBB, to which should be added the sum of £3078 to cover work done and materials supplied at Timaru during the last 12 months. Much delay was caused at Port Chalmers by shipwrights and other dock workers being transferred to other vessels of higher priority. Considerable dredging was to be done to the harbour approaches at Timaru and clearing the area between No. 2 wharf and the north mole where no maintenance work had been done for many years.