Municipal Arcadias.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 7496, 20 April 1899, Page 4

Municipal Arcadias.

(Lyttelton Times.) Residents in New Zealand boroughs, haunted by over-recarring " rates," may well envy the lot of the good people of several municipalitiesintheOld World, where owing to ample provision of what are known in colonial parlance as •' reserves," the rate collector and his unwelcome visits are unknown. In a recent issue of an English journal it is stated that in Sweden the inhabitants of the Dalecalian village of Orsa rejoice in freedom from rates and taxes. Staufenberg, In Hesse Darmstadt, owns a large tract of forest land, which yield enough revenue to pay municipal expenses, and besides to'allow a "dividend" to every citizen of about LI a year, besides a certain amount of free fuel. The town hall water supply, schools, municipal bakehouse, etc , are all maintained in a state of high efficiency out of the revenue of the public estate. Klingenberg-on-the-Main pays its rates and taxes, and gives an annual bonus to if s inhabitants, out of the royalties on its rich beds of fireclay. Communal meadows and forests pay all the rates of Langenselbeld, in Hanau, and each citizen gets besides two cords of firewood and twenty marks a year in money. Freudenftadt, in Baden—thanks to the possession of 500-J acres of land— supplies its inhabitants with free wood for firing and building, with free pasture for their cattle, and with roads, schools, churches, fountains, hospital, and communal music, without levying*any rates, and gives each family a "Christmas box" of L2 10s to L 3. Kamden, on the Zuider Zee, derives its income from the letting of municipal lands, and therate-collector is unknownWould that the pioneers of settlement in this colony had followed the wise example of the forefathers of the fortunate dwellers in these muncipal arcadias.