CITY FINANCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17012, 10 April 1923, Page 6

CITY FINANCE.

DEBIT BALANCE REDUCED STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE. The chairman of the Finance Committee of the City Counco (Or J. A. r iesher) made the following statement in regard to finance at the meeting of the City Council last evening : “ During the past year the total rates levied amounted to £236,003, and the amount not collected on March 31 last was £B7IO. The full amount collected was, therefore, £227,293, which i k > a- remarkable result; in fact th© best result ever achieved by this council during any financial year. The position in regard, to the general account is ; GENERAL RATE £ Levied .... 115,789 Collected .... 112,269 Outstanding . . . 3,520 “It will be noticed that the debit balance on the district fund account is £54,811. The t-otal levy in 1922 was £223,010, the increase this year being £12,993. Antecedent* liability represents £10,260, which explains part of the increase in the rate levied. There is also the amount for the Bridge of Remembrance, £IBOO. the reduction 01 £1305 in the amount collected from the okl Woolston borough, and the increase of £2Boo.in the Hospital Board levy. These items more than explain the increase in the levy made for all purposes during the past twelve months.

“ The debit balance on the district fund account- at March 31, 1921, after allowing for outstanding assets and liabilities, was £80,460. The debit balance is now £54.8.11, so that the position of this council lias improved dur ing the past- two years by £25.649. Th© city ha 4 reduced its indebtedness by this amount. When other items are taken into account, it will be found that our debit balance during the past two years has been reduced by over £30.000. That is a result which the citizens should all appreciate. It shows that the affairs of the council have been managed not in a reckless manner, hut in a careful manner, with due regard to proper administration.” The Mayor (Dr H. T. J. Thacker) said that the statement was quite apropos. The figures spoke for themselves. Another thing the council could he proud of was that it had maintained the wages of its employees. It had not cut them down in any way. (Hear, hear). Councillor J. Tl Brunt; Is Councillor Flesher’s statement made in a reply to. a ’otter which appeared ir» Saturday's “ Star ” ? Councillor Flesher: No. This statement is made every year. Councillor C. W. Hevvey: I hope it is not propaganda work, The Mayor: Tt is not. It reflects credit on all members of the Finance Committee.

setter; one such tribute ended as follows : “Let surgeons, Mapp, thou wonder of the age! With dubious arts endeavour to engage ; While you, irregularly strict to rules, Teach dull collegiate pedants they are fools; By merit, the sure path to fame purFor all who see thy art must own its true.” Whilst the following song appeared iu a comic; opera : “ Your surgeons of London who puzzle your pates, To ride in your coaches and purchase estates, Give over, for shame, for your pride lias a fall, And the Doctress of Epsom has outdone you all !” Space will not allow us to give details of the many cures which were described in the journals of the day. If only a hundredth part of them were true, Sarah Mapp, late Crazy Sally, was a very wonderful woman. The transformation was extraordinary. The scarecrow of the West County laues was now a lady of fashion, going to the Theatre Royal in Lincoln’s Inn Fields to witness a performance of the play called “ The Husband’s Relief. or the Female Bone-setter,” and sitting in a box between Dr Ward and Dr Taylor, two of the most famous physicians of the day. On this occasion, there was such a crowd at the theatre to see the play and the “ Shape Mistress,” that many were turned away from the doors and fine gentlemen and ladies were hustled in the lobbies, and went away with crushed plumage ad picked pockets. After the performance. Mrs Mapp went to partake of an elegant dinner —so the journals tells us—at the house of Dr Taylor in Pall Mall. The height of the bone-setter’s fame wa« reached on September 23, 3 736, when the papers toll us that: “Mrs Mapp continues working extraordinary cures ; on Sunday, she waited on Her Majesty at the Palace of St James. What a'rise for Crazy Sally of the Wiltshire lanes ! but her downfall was to he just- as extraordinary and more During the summer of 1736, Mrs Mapp seems to have taken a great interest in horse racing—being, as it were, on the spot at Epsom. In September, her Plate of Ten Guineas was run for on the famous course, and won —curiously enough—by a mare called “Mrs Mapp.” The Shape Mistress was so pleased with thq success of her namesake that she gave the jockey a hundred guineas. In the autumn of that year, on November 25, Mrs Mapp moved from Ep sorn into a set of rooms in Pall Mali thou the fashionable neighbourhood for doctors and surgeons, and the “London Poet” adds to the notice of t-liis removal the couplet:— “ In this bright aye two wonder-work-Whose operations puzzle all the wise* To lame and blind, bv dint of manual slight, Mapp gives the use -of limbs, and Tavlor, sight.” And after that—silence. Whether her powers suddenly failed her, whether paralysis gripped her limbs, or her worthless husband drained her of money and hope ; whether the touch of charlatanism in Sarah Mapp lost its virtue, aud her person a lit-v ceased to impose itself, one can never know. All that remains to be said is contained in s abort paragraph in the newsheets of December 22, 1 737Died last week, at ber lodgings near the Seven Dials, tbe much-talked-or Mrs Mapp, so miserably poor that the parish was obliged to bury her.” * Next week’s story will relate the history of Christian Davis, the woman guardsman.