ROAD BOARD FINANCES.

Manawatu Times, Volume IX, Issue 1112, 15 November 1883, Page 2

ROAD BOARD FINANCES.

A legacy of indebtedness is not * thing which is readily appreciated by those to whom it has been bet» qtfeathed, and is apt to make the recipients view the departed with, anything hut feelings of admiration* Junding by the proceedings at ar^^ tei day's meeting of the' Manawkttf > Road Board, the members find them- . selves m the position of legatees have been treated thus. During the proceedings, the Chairman, Mr Snelson, stated the position very clearly, and pointed. out that on the new members oomingrinto office there was an overdraft at the Bank of £847 18s ltd, while the extent W-wHicH the Board could legally, oorrow m this manner was but £680. The Board had thus on the item an* illegal indebtedness of £167 odd. The whole of the lutes for the year, ex« eluding those on Native lands, the amount of which was uncertain; were only about L6OO, and qf these L3BO had been collected, of which L 258 had been collected ; by? .-the members whose term had just' er^ pired. Besides this item for over? draft of about LBSO m round bers, the Board that day had before it accounts, which must be paid,con« tracts,&c, entered into by the old Board, amounting to L 266 17s lOdl The sum of £188 10s was also. due \ by the Board on account of money belonging to the Kairanga Block which Bad been paid into the Geriei ral Account and used by the Board,, while the Board had now no money to pay for contracts which haji been carried out m that Block. ; T&herje 1 was thus an absolute deficit of about £500 more than the legal overdraft of £680, and m addition to this the old Board had used £50 out of the grant of -£500 for roads m Fitzher* bert. The total indebtedness of the Board at the present was £1163 17s lOd, withont inclnding money owing on account of bnshfalling, "to be paid when the Board is m funds/* or advances to be repaid. ■To meet. this liability all they had was about £220 of rates to come m, including; gcod, bad, and indifferent, and the Bank bad declined to allow theBoard to overdraw to any greater extent. , In reply to a question, the Chairman said that ail |tbis indebtedness was existing when the new members took office, and it was certainly %■ " blue look-out " for them. | The clerk explained that there had been some difficulty regarding the payment of the accounts pasted at last meeting. After this statement of the Chairman's the members appeared to tho* roughly realise the gravity of the position and an air of solemity prevailed until Mr M'Ewen remarked that th# position was not by any means s* bad as when he took office the pre» vious year, for there was then aare listing liability of about £1800. He thought tho only way? oiut lofVthe difficulty would be to levy special rates on the wards indebted. On a reference to the ward ac« - counts it was found that while the indebtedness of the other ward! ranged from L73 for No 2, to I&CtiL for No No 5, Ward No 1, represeh* ted by Mr M'Ewen, had a credit bai. ance of L 62, while Kairanga or Ward No 6, was also m an excellent position. The proposal for * special rate on the indebted wards therefore met wiiK : litfle attention. After some further discussion, during which '. ''ih,\, was pointed out that if the accounts wen not paid the creditors of the Board might elect to sue the late members individually or tKo present .Board, the Chairman and Mr Pratt' were appointed a Committee .to -■ arrango with the Bank for a sufficiency for present requirements. The accounts were then passed for payment sub« ject to these arrangements being carried out. „.. „.