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36
The purchase of the site (£8000) being added to Mr. Tiltman's
estimate of £14,000, will give a total of £22,500. If to this be
added the architect's commission of 5 per cent., and the expenses
of the purchase and other incidental charges, the gross amount
will still not exceed £25,000, and if to this sum be added £5000 to
allow for alterations and possible improvements of the design, and
as a margin for the builder's tenders exceeding Mr. Tiltman's
estimate, the amount, altogether, will not exceed £30,000.
Should this sum be borrowed for, say, 30 years, at 3! percent,
interest, the yearly repayment during the first year would be,
principal £1000 and interest £1050, together £2050, gradually
reducing by £35 a year as each yearly sum of £1000 is paid of!
the principal. The amount would be still less if the money were
borrowed on the annuity principle, viz., that of repaying principal
and interest by one equal amount throughout the whole period,
the yearly payment would then probably be about £1500 throughout
the whole thirty years.
Should the loan be only sanctioned for only twenty years, the first
yearly payment would be £1500 for principal and £1050 for
interest, together £2550; and if on the annuity principle, about
£2000 only.
A rate of one half-penny in the £ produces at least £3000
a year, so that a rate of that amount would be amply sufficient to
discharge the entire repayment of the debt, whether the amount
were borrowed for thirty or twenty years, and leave something
towards management expenses, even on the assumption that the
baths and washhouses, when opened, only paid the weekly
working expenses, and yielded no surplus towards discharging the
annual instalments of principal and interest.
The Commissioners do not lose sight of the fact that Washhouses
and Baths may be more urgently needed in the northern
part of the Parish than in the Ferndale Road district, but as the
Commissioners do not possess the necessary powers to compcl
owners to part with sites for Baths and Washhouses, the Commissioners
can only acquire such sites as may be obtainable at
reasonable prices. From the lessening quantity of open spaces