CO129-509-15 Water supply- development scheme 30-1-1928 - 17-1-1929 — Page 221

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meet the cost of the Aberdeen Water scheme.

This

expenditure must ultimately be charged to a new loan

but there appears to be no need to float a new loan

at prosent. At some future date it will probably

be found advisable to float a Sterling loan which

can be used to pay for the Aberdeen scheme and any

further loan works and to liquidate the present six

per cent loan; meanwhile the scheme can be financed

from surplus balances as shown in Enclosure Fo.4 up

to the end of 1929. Should there be no improvement

in our revenue meanwhile, the year 1930 may present

some difficulty. It is impossible to prophesy so

far ahead but conditions are undoubtedly improving,

and although in Enclosure No.3 I have shown a

deficit on the accounts of 1928 of $1,079,655, I

have every hope that a more optimistic forecast

will ultimately prove to have been justifiable.

At the worst it may be necessary to borrow money

in 1930 to complete the Aberdeen scheme and it will

then be a matter for consideration whether a loan

should be floated forthwith or whether the money

should be found by the issue of Treasury Bills or

otherwise with a view to the floating of a loan

at a later date.

6.

The importance f some increase in the

water supply of the Colony cannot be over-estimated.

The value of the Aberdeen scheme to the Colonial

water system had already been set out in Sir Cecil

Clementi's confidential despatch of 30th January

last, and I would emphasize the importance and

urgency of the scheme in view of the continued

expansion of the population of the busy West Point

district. A more satisfactory system of supply and distribution throughout West Point is a pressing

necessity,