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Evening Star, Issue 4045, 12 February 1876, Page 2

:JS QTgriany a rather vig&jly-woriTed tel<sgv&m uSjihat " the aubsidy;to niu^icipa ( by "the:: Col iiiol Treasury iu two'in'Btalmeftts; thf j &tM on the Ist of February, and the other on the lßt of March." Oa making inquiry, we find that the telegram has reference to the, vrant o* 6b 8d in the pound, which, when the. Abolition Bill was- pr*otically. hungaipior-twelve-months, the Colonial Government undertook to give to tetanicr realities in lieu'of. the pound, for pound which would have come to them had the Bill

into operation. It *vaa : in Committee of Supply on Octobtr 21.' t&at'Major Atkinson said:

As the House has decided that the abolition shall not take place, .of.course both, the Boad Boards , arid Municipalities will'lose a Considerable amount of income, during the year—direct income at any rate—thai they; would have otherwise obtained. The Government proposed originally to spend £BO,OOO on road boards and municipal bodies, and fitjO.OOO'upon local public works.. ,We now propose Under tlip Abolition scheme,t)ie road'boards would', be entitled to £2 for every pound collected, and the municipalities £1 for every pound; but asweTiiow have only. £BO,OOO to apply to the whole of these.services, we propose to give a third of the amount which each would have received had the Provinces been abolished. For local public works in outlying' districts, it i 8 proposed to five £20,000; to the municipalities, 6s 8d in the £; and to road boards, 13s 4dinthe.£, r .. , , " Early in tlie year the Treaauiy issued a schedule in which the municipal bodies were to specify ib detail. the. amount of general and apec'ql rate 3 levied' by them,, with a view to the grant': being allocated in accordance with the statistical information which those 1 , schedules furnished.' But the Town Clerk (Mr. coiwiderin*, for reasons that will appeaxyrre: Isentryythat the schedulp, if bT'ed up in the form presented to hun, might he used *o,th =» disadvantage ef -the Dunedin Cor aeration, b; ought the in&tter under the notice of his Worship' the Mayorj and the result has been that a good deal of eoriespbnrleriae ha* pas ed between the' civic authorities of Duned'n, Ghristchurob, Wdliugton and Auckland oa the one hand, anil bo*,ween the Mayor and the General Go-, vertimerit r;n the -otht-r. The position of the City Co.uooil, as compared with the j cit : ie bodies in the other i rovinei.il capitals, is j exceptional. Our Ccrp ration is constituted ! by :vj Ordinance of the Piovfricial 'Council;' 1 the Municipal Couucila of Cbmtchurcb, Wei and Auck ; and owe their existence to th£ Colonial Mu«iciial'iC<rporations; -ict of 1867. I» Danedin we htve ote general rat-i" of lifee-n pance in the pound levied for al<. municipal purposes, including permanent charges, &e, but the Corporations established • under the Colonial Act haye not only a ceneral rate, which is limited to one shilling-in'the pound but they have - their special rates beside .■■ J hus, for example, Auckland hasu. special rate of sixpence; aod Chnstchutc'u three special iate«, for specific purpo es, which amount it) aH to ten and a half pence in the pound. The "poiot rawed by Mr Massey w-h. thit the Duneli'n Corporation wa« entit ed to the giant, ad will be entitled to the subsi- 'iy uuder the Abolition Act, upon ita gross anri a> rate, subject of course to th» limitation provided by the Act, and not up--n its net expo uditure tor municipal purposes, a ter payment of ceneral charges, &c, as the form of schedule implied.. It will be seen from the subjoined correspondence that the Co'ouial Treasury admits Mr Massey's view; go that the Corporation will be shortly put in posses sion of ±.3,226 as its share of the Colonial grant City Council Chambers, Dunedin, January 29,1876. The Honorable the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. ~ Sir,-!-I do myself the honor to address you on behalf of this Council on the subject of the subsidy to municipal general rates provided for nnder the " Abolition of Provinces Act" of last session of Parliament. I need not remind you that within certain j limits that Act provides, after it shall come into I operation, that the different municipal Corporations shall annually receive from the Colonial sevtfutie a subsidy of LI for .every LI •of general municipal rates declared and received during the • yent", .■■■.'■-.... , The Provincial fAuditor some tune ago' duly handed me a schedule to fill up, showing the general rates received by our Council during the last past vear, and I filled up the same truly and correctly as from our hooks, showing that the' One only rate recsiVed during' the year amounted to between LII.OOO and L 12.000. I did not see my way to specify how much had been received on account of tlie several-heads recited in the printed sonedulehanded to me: because only one rate is yearly levied and received to cover all outgoings IrCthe shape of public lighting, interest on debt, sinking fund, &».,. «e.,and it occurred to me that some other New Zealand Corporations had a habit of collecting possibly different rates to cover the different items of outlay. Otherwise, I could not discover why I should be asked to state upw much received for the interest rate, how much for public lighting rate, how much for protection of rlvera rate, how much for sinking fund, Sk,, &.; and then how much for tlie general municipal purposes ? In our ease, after the. different permanent charge* art met, the balance of the o&e municipal • rate available for general purposes 1b slight indeed, amounting to not mauy hundred pounds per year; but I take it that after the Abolition Act shall come force, the Dunedin Corporation will participate and enjoy a Colonial subsidy within the limits of that Act up to LI for LI on each of the LII.OOO odd pounds now annually paid to the.-Cpuseil by the citizens by way of rate*, subjeet to the limitation of the Act as to a Is rate, a 15d rate producing the sum I have named. • f am quite prepared to fill up the schedule to the bist of my ability in the tract printed form; but I am naturally anxious to be nseured that by doing sol I do not commit ibis Council to handing in a claim only for payment on the balance of the rote available for general purposes after the other permanent charges have beea met. if you would kindly favor tu« wjjh a reply, I shall be obliged.—l have, &c, . H. J. Waiter, Ksyor. O-'rcasury, Wellington, " •7th February, 1876. . Hist Worship the Mayor,'Danedin. Sir, —I have the honor, by direction of the Honorabhr> the Colonial Treasurer, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th Ult., addressed fco the Honorable the Colonial Secretary, in reference to the mode of filling up the return* required as a Libia for computing the amount payable to the municipality of Dunedin out of the grant of sixty thousand pounds voted by Parliament during the hwt session. It is stated in your letter that during its past financial year the municipality of Dunedin imposed for all purposes a general rate of one shilling and threepence in the £. Thi3. being the case the total amount collected should be stated in the return as " general rates," and payment of the grant will be niade on four-fiftUs 'of that sum (equal to a rate of one dhilling). I may explain that the forn in whfch these returns are called for was designed to show the amount of any "special rates" levied in addition to the ordinary rate. Whereas in the case of Dunedin no such rate was imposed the classifications uuder that headjbeconie unnecessary. It is observed that tlie grant now about to be distributed is referred to in your letter as being provided under the " Abolition of Provinces Act;" this however, is not the case, that Act being in force only as regards the four last sections thereof. The grnnt was made by an ordinary rote of the Legislature on the representation of the Ctoyerninent that is would be distributed at the rate of six shillings and eightr.ence in the pound to Municipalities, and thirteen shillings and fburpence to Boad Boards. . lam to request that you will be good enough to ' forward your return made up as indicated" in this letter, aa early as cbnvesient, in ord<n* taafc a first instalment of the amount payable to the Mnnici- J pality of Dunedin may bo remitted to you.—l am, I «c, C. T. Batkut. Secretary to the Treasury. ■

His .Worship the Mayor has kindly placed at our disposal theifollowing telegram, received by him in reply to one forwarded to Sir Julius Vogel, welcoming him'hack to the Colony:—" Many thanks for your kindly expressed welcome. I shall try to visit Dunedin very soon.—Julius Vogel." At the Resident Magistrate's- Court, Port Chalmers, yesterday afternoon, before Mr T. A. Mansford; R.M., Michael Bjvon, Edward Middleton, Gteorge Ward, Richard > Pennington, John Platten; I 'Augustus Bain, and John Leonard,, seamen belonging to the ship Oxford, pleaded guilty to disobedience of lawful commands, and were remanded until Monday next! ■■.•■<.■>'

M r Charles Bright delivered his lectnre on | "Yankee Humor" in the Masonic Hall, P07.-t Chalmers, last njghtr His Warship th' 3 Mayor occupied thV''chiur, and the' : ftt- s tendance, considering the, eiy, tr emely good. '• " ;*fe'.V/* '?£

The Minister for Pub% Worksfinspccted** the Bay,Tuim%^o'rk|i#n l di»y. - f c&ieds soiith on Monday. after j a.'i> likely ;to be;ariy eereiaony ojivthe turn£ hi g of the first goHiOf section pfi - \. ■ ../•*••'•.•■•'■ •" A few chargej&jf th e business at the City Police Court to-day. James Hunter was fined ss, with>the«alter*' native of twenty-four hours' imprisonment; James Wilson, Delia M'Laren, and Donald Alexander, alias John Smith, each 10s, or three! fourteen days'. Mr Pyke, R.M.* presicted. :

Mr J. .P. i Armstrong lectured at the Temperance Hall'last" evening on "The Early:JDay? erf Victoria.". The subject was^ ably handled, and some of the" anecdotes' were related in an exceedingly'drbll manner. Mr Armstrong claims to have introduced 'thili' first camp-oven' on ihe Victbrian gold-: fields, fcndhe paid ahjgh compliment toSkf. I Julius j(then'Mj).yogel for his assignee lid the miners when he was editing the ''Marlborough and\ Dunnolly Advertiser,'. "iTJhe lecturer was heartily applauded at ', the close of the, lecture., The j following iteins: are from to-day's 'Tuapeka Times :—At the interview which took place between the tTnder-Secre,tary for the Gpldfields and the deputation re the recoiistruction of the Beaumont and, Tuapeksk" Water Race, a hint ' was thrown out -'tifrat the Minister for Public Worts would | be. in. the- neighborhood : shortly, and tliat advantage should be taken of his Sresen. be to get him to : visit Tuapeka. .Mr ['Arthur, Provincial Surveyor, has made an official inspection of the proposed railway, line from Waipaheeto Tapanui. Mr Horace Bastings has purchased the' line of coaches running between Milton arid Clyde from Cobb arid Co.

The performance at the Queen's Theatre last evening was for the benefit of Miss Clara Stephenson, - and there was a very large attendance in the lower parts of the house. Miss Stephenson has so often appeared as Medea in the tragedy of that name shat nearly all playgoers must be familiar \yith her rendering of the' part; it is therefore only necessary for Us to say that her last night's acting showed great improvement on her former representations. . It is certainly in characters of this class that Miss Stephenson is seen to the greatest advantage; in burlesque she evinces a tendency to vulgarity. Mr Stoneham's Jason was a creditable performance. The "burlesque of " Ixion " followed, and appeared to be thoroughly enjoyed by the audience, who encored everything and everybody. To-night "The Streets of New York" will be played, being the last production this season. In the course of the examination of Mr Christie, one of the plaintiffs in the case of Fielding and others v. Tapper, heard before Judge Ward in the District Court at Invercargill on "Wednesday, the witness (says the ' News') observed that all the skins referred

to in the action were those of merino sheep. His Honor on hearing this put the question:: "Do you kill only merinos at Switzers ?" Witness: "Only merinos. We never kill Leicesters." Judge Ward: " Very fortunate for the inhabitants of Switzers. As a machine for the production of wool and tallow, I believe the Leicester sheep to be unrivalled; but the erea,ture is utterly unfit for human food. The human stomach was not intended to be turned into a tallow vat, except in the Polar regions. I attribute a large proportion of the grime in the Colony to that abominable attim&l, tb© Leicester sheep. In its best form it i» simply an animated mass of tallow. Its consumption leids inevitably to dyspepsia ; and dyspepsia to drink! Drink fafces a man direct to the assizes; and the assizes je»d feiffi to lower depths still." ' -■

Thar© are only three notices on the City Council's Order Paper for Tuesday: one by Cr.' Leary (postponed from last meeting), having reference to permanently fixing the street, levels'; one by Cr. Chapman—" That in order to facilitate the despatchof business, all .correspondence relating to Water supply "and lighting be in futurej referred directly to the Committees having management of these' matters, excepting such' as the Town Clerk shall think" ought to come bafore the Council;" and'the third by Cr. Reeves t—" That during the Visit of 'Major Gordon to this City it is desirable to obtain his professional opinion and' report on the questions of drainage and sewerage, and water supply extension—that with this view he be communicated withei and that the City Engineer be instructed to collate all the information he may consider necessary, and on receipt of Major Gordon's reply (should he agree to place his services at the of the Corporation) that the same be forwarded to him in Melbourne."

W* notice;that most of the g-ocers now oIo»a iahops at six every evening, except Satmdayrf, when they are open till 1Q o'clock. »yew<uld a§aiD direct attention to the announceaisiit fhat the Maiiopette Tr mpe will m ike their first apparahce at the Temperance Hall on Monday night. • - :-•• In another colnmn will befoundkchallenge Lsriei by Bttbert T)*SK, of Cromwell, to Gtorge Hobfrtson, the Maori, to wrestle for LlOOaaide—Cumberland style. Dags: la a native of Northumberland, and although scaliogi. two stone and a half less than Kobertsop is possessed' of a considerable amount cf strength and activity. He is well known as » wrestler in his district, and hus competed at Dunedin.