The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-02-03 00:00:00

THE CONSOLIDATION OF BOROUGH
FUNDS.

So far back as May 1877 that veteran financier, Mr.
W. Eliot, with his eon, the present Mayor, elaborated
and brought forward • scheme for the consolidation of
Ihe Borough feeds, whereby the trust debts of the
Ommal, which were then, as now, subject to different
rates of interest, might be liquidated by capital
borrowed Ma lower rate of interest, so that a Sinking
Teed might be raised for the repair of the Pile-pier
or other needs. At that time we were told that
Parlismeat would Doer allow an Act fur this purpose
tairestred, and the only shadow of consideration
to the scheme by either of the local news.
WWI given by the Telegram, which suggested
Messrs. Eliot had perhaps some one in their
lairds who would be willing to lend the money to
aeoenapliele tbe transfer. Now we find that the bor.
Ore Liverpool and Nottingham have promoted
**of
very purpose. The following is from the
Loot Oewereesent Obronick

- - -
" The Bill promoted this year by the Corporations of
Liverpool and Nottingham for the purpose of codsolidat-
ing their loans, form a very important contribution
towards the solutionof a question which becomes annually
more urgent in proportion to the rapid increase of the
local debts of Englund The state of things which is
disclosed in the preamble to the Liverpool Bill is • very
fair sample of that which exists in the majority of our
larger towns. The property in the borough is amply
sufficient to meet all charges upon it, including not only
all existing debts, but all that can reasonably be expected
to be thrown upon it for many years to come. The
municipal securities are for all practical purposes se
eligible investments for a prudent lender Id consols :. but
for one reason and another they carry • far higher
intend. In the first place, trustees may not
invest in them unless they are specially authorised
to do 50 bl the will or other instrument creating
the trust. In the second, it requires consider-
able study on the part even of a skilled person to
understand the borrowing powers of the Corporation,
and the condition of their finances. Their huge debt,
consisting of more than four millions, is 'charged upon
different securities, with different priorities, at different
rates of interest, subject to different conditions,. and re-
payable at different times.' When to this ills added that
some of the rates forming part of the securities are
limited in amount, it is easy to understand that notwith-
standing the reassuring fact that the rateable value of the
property in the borough is upwards of three millions, to
say nothing of the very valuable corporate property on
which the loans are charged as • collateral security, many
of the mortgages of the Corporation carry • far higher
rate of interest than they would do if a simpler and mote
unloras mode of borrowing were substiluted for that now in
form.
"That this might easily be done has been shown by
the Metropolitan Board of Works. Since they have
substituted a consolidated stock for the old cumbrous
system of separate mortgagee, they have been able to
borrow without the slightest difficulty on terms scarcely
inferior to those on which the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer obtains his loans. Some day, it may be hoped,
every Iota: authority whose distriet is in a vitrent condition
will be enabled to do the same under the general law."
\Whether we shall hear any more of the Amalgamation
Scheme from the Messrs. Eliot, or from Mr. Howard,
we cannot tell; but we note on reference to the
Telegram of June 1, 1877, that Mr. Howard, se fax
from considering the scheme utterly impracticable,
pointed out that, if an Act could be obtained, a great
staving might be made, and a Sinking Fund formed.
The discussion wa, clit..l by the Town Clerk's dictum
that hitch an Act would not be obtainable, and we must
now watch the pro,,,rees of the Liverpool and Notting-
ham applications, f.ir if they are successful, possibly it
may be thought advisable for Weymouth to follow
suit.
DI,WESS.