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13
It may not unnaturally be feared that if so large an expen
diture be incurred concurrently with so low a rating the Board
are, as it were, discounting the future by extensive loans ; only
one permanent loan, however, (for £5,000) has been effected
in the course of the year; the other loan of £6,100 being merely
to provide against a temporary financial derangement, and
supply a deficiency in the estimates which must be met in the
now current year.
All the Board's permanent loans have been for the purpose
of carrying out permanent works ; and in order to show that they
have been kept within a reasonable limit, and are being duly discharged
by annual and other payments, a statement is appended
to this Report of all loans raised since the constitution of the
Board in 1856 ; the amount re-paid and the amount outstanding
at Lady-day, 1874, and also the term of years within which each
loan is repayable.
This Table shows that of £68,522, the total amount borrowed
to that date, £31,529 had been re-paid, leaving only £36,993
outstanding.
Of the total sum so borrowed, £32,222 was within the first
ten years, of which sum £25,215 has been paid off, leaving only
£7,007 outstanding to Lady-day, 1874 ; and of the £36,300
borrowed within the subsequent eight years, £6,314 has been
paid off, leaving only £29,986 outstanding at Lady-day, 1874.
The Board, therefore, confidently submit that having regard
to the Rateable Value of the District, according to the Valuation
Lists in force during the years 1873-4, amounting to
£412,720, they are very far within the limits to which their
borrowing powers might not improperly be extended, and they
have the assurance that in carrying out the great and manifest
Improvements in the District which have been effected during
the year ended Lady-day last, they are acting in accordance
with the wish of the great majority of the Inhabitants, and
are not increasing the burdens of the Ratepayers beyond an
amount they cheerfully bear.
By Order,
SAML- EDWARDS,
Clerk to the Board.