Levels Road Board Expenses.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4912, 22 January 1889, Page 4

Levels Road Board Expenses.

Mr E. T. Rhodes having written to the Herald contradicting a statement reported to have been made by Mr Balfour, that of the Levels Road district rates over £9OO a year isfspent before the roads are touched, Mr Rhodes asserting that the office expenses are under £SOO a year, Mr Balfour gives the following particulars from the balance sheet, for the information of the public generally, for the year ended 31st

The above total of £1094 5s 9d is reduceable by £l2O 18s, on account of three items which properly should not be charged against last year in particular, namely, £ls for a petition re Charitable Aid Board, £BO 18s balance of payment for road district maps, and £25 for office rent belonging to the previous year; leaving £973 7s 9d as the expenses of last year, or 24 per cent of the year’s rates, namely, £4OOO. As we are not likely to get any more subsidy from Government, we shall now have to pay contributions to hospital and charitable aid out of rates. Taking these as this year, namely, £545, it will raise the total expenses, before roads are made to, say, £1520, or nearly 38 per cent of a rate of fiveeighths of a penny in the pound. Of course a new district will require to pay its due proportion for hospital and charitable aid. 1 am, &c., W. Baipoue.

The British Consul, at Baltimore, in a recent report on the agriculture of Virginia and Maryland, states that the dairy industry in those States is in a deplorable condition, and the produce almost unsaleable, while at the same time first-class brands of butter uniformly command a dollar per lb in the New York market.

Texas is troubled with a plethora of cash. Its bonded indebtedness is only £900,000; which the holders will not exchange for the money, preferring to draw the interest; and there is in the State Treasury a surplus of more than £400,000. The school fund has a surplus of £3,200,000, for nearly half of which no safe investment can be found. The farmers, to whom the State has been selling its land on forty years’ time, with only 5 per cent, interest, in the hope that they would be very dilatory about paying the principal, are piling in the money on the overburdened State Treasurer. The counties are doing the same. To add to its misery the State has 30,000,000 acres of land yet to sell, which are bringing every year higher prices. The bungling job made of the hanging of 1 Louisa Collins at Sydney, recalls a more exciting experience, when three failing attempts to execute a man in Sydney in 1803 resulted in his being reprieved. Joseph Samuels was ordered for execution for stealinp a desk, containing money, from Mary Breeze. The rope first broke in the middle, and the criminal fell prostrate; on the second attempt the rope unrove and he fell to the ground ; on the third trial the rope snapped in the middle. The Provost-Marshall, Mr Smith, a very kind man, took compassion on the culprit, and proceeding to the Government House, represented the circumstances, and thereby obtained a reprieve for him. A writer in London Figaro says:—l have no doubt that the Bishop of Dunedin is an excellent man, and is deservedly popular in his far-off diocese. But he did not convince me by his sermon at St. Mary’s Brompton, on Sunday morning, that it is ray duty to assist him to pay off the debt on the Theological Training College at Dunedin, New Zealanders are desperately fond of borrowing—and, in fact, of getting all they can out of the Old Country, but I do not see why we should be asked to find £BOO for the purpose of enabling them to free themselves from obligations which, wisely or unwisely, have been incurred in their own interests.

Two large historic estates have just passed into the hands of “ new ” men, away from the families who have held them for generations. Mr Cunliffe Lister, the well-known Bradford “ plush ” manufacturer, has purchased the beautiful estate of Jerreaux Abbey, in Yorkshire, consisting of 32,000 acres while Sir Edward Guinness has become the possessor of Savernake Forest, in Wiltshire, which comprises 39,000 acres. The late owner of this estate, which is probably the most beantiful piece of woodland scenery in the three kingdoms, is that respectable personage, the Marquis of Ailesbury, and ho has parted with it to Sir Edward Guinness for the sum of £750,000,

In the Fortnightly there is a symposium on the eternal question of “ What our Navy should De.” The editor writes an introduction, and Admirals Symonds, Hornby, and Lord Alcester each give their opinion. It is difficult to summarise the technical arguments, but all three admirals are couvinccd that something must be done. Sir Thomas Symonds gives the following as the pressing wants of the navy! —"300 lieutenants, 5000 more seamen and stokers, 5000 marines, 20 seagoing battle ships of high freeboard, equal to blockade in all weathers, 60 cruisers of high speed and good size, and 100 torpedo vessels of a much larger class than those which at present exist.” Admiral Hornby and Lord Alcester ask quite as much. Lord Alcester demands that 20 first-class ironclads should be at once laid down, and at least 40 fast cruisers should he laid down as a commencement. All (he writers complain that the Admiralty is paralysed by the Treasury, which fears to make fresh demands upon the public purse.

March, 1888: — £ 8. d. Salaries, including office rent ... 445 16 8 Interest on overdraft 173 10 4 Poisoned wheat 104 2 1 Advertising and printing, chiefly contracts 83 14 7 Eepairs to tools, ironmongery, pipes, &c 35 17 7 Fire insurance and guarantee ... 12 11 8 Stationery 7 18 10 Election expenses 8 16 9 Surveying, &c 15 2 0 Extra clerical assistance 15 0 0 Express and dray hire ... 7 4 0 Members’travelling expenses ... 13 3 6 Office cleaning, fuel, &c. 18 15 3 Street lighting ... 8 10 0 Stamps and Sundries 10 18 B Other sundry expenses 12 6 3 Petition re Charitable Aid Board 15 0 0 Payment on account of maps ... 80 18 0 Office rent belonging to 1887 ... 25 0 0 £1094 6 9