“EXTRAVAGANCE”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 207, 20 August 1929, Page 4

“EXTRAVAGANCE”

NAPIER MAYOR’S WARNING FINANCES NOT IN A GOOD POSITION. OPPONENTS’ CALL IT "GETTING PANICKY." From repeated warnings given by the Mayor, Mr J. Vigor Brown, at last night’s meeting of tho Napier Borough Council he did not appear to fed at all comfortable about the borough’s finances. A suggestion by Cr. P. Higgins that he was “getting panicky' 1 about the finances was not at ail relished by the Mayor. Repeatedly His Worship urged that extreme care should be taken and that only absolutely necessary work* should bo undertaken. Unless a check were kept on their expenditure he was afraid that at the end of the year they would have to put their handa into their own pocket to make up tho deficiency. Following two recommendations put forward by the engineer involving an expenditure of £75 not provided for in the estimates, the Mayor remarked: "We must pull ourselves together in the spending of money till wo gee where wo are. “We started the year £6OOO to the bad,’’ commented the Mayor at a later stage, "and since then we have spent something like £lOOO a month during the last four months. If we go on adding to expenditure not provided for we will be heavily involved at the end of the year. We should try and do all wo can out of loan moneys. We are getting into a bad position, being £12,000 behind now. It’s no laughing matter —What I am trying to do is to safeguard the borough’s funds. Cr. Bedford: We are all trying to do that. The Mayor: I am uot so sure about that. We are getting into a slack way of refusing a thing one day and doing it the next. Later came a proposal to spend £l3O on the erection of a new glass house at Nelson Park, The Mayor and Cr. J. C. Bryant felt that a saving could be affected by holding tho work up. Cr P. Higgins: Wo are going from a stampede to a panic. And I for one am not going to get panicky. I have never subscribed to the statement you made some time ago that we had money to burn. The Mayor: You are wrong in making that statement. I only said so far as the unemployed are concerned. Cr. C. D. Cox: All last year you were asking us not to quibble at expenditure on various matters. What you were wanting to see was progress. Cr. Higgins: Yes, last year you ■wanted to give everything away—free water to schools, reduced electricity charges, and all that. The Mayor: But they had been promised for years. Cr. Higgins: Now the position is reversed, and you are panicky. The Mayor: I am not! Cr. J. C. Bryant: As Chief Magistrate of this town it is your duty to warn councillors of the position of the borough’s finances. The Mayor: I wish to record my protest against unwarranted expenditure. Ido not wish to have to put my hand in my pocket. Cr. Cox: Nothing will bo done then. We might as well close down. After further discussion in which it was pointed out that the glass house would result in a saving, a vote was taken, and it was agreed that tho work be proceeded with.