Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 181, 2 August 1877, Page 4

It appears from the audited accounts of the Dunedin Corporation, which have just been published (saya the Times), that tha gross receipts of the city for the year 1876 on the general account amounted to £165,108. In this sum, however, is included fche proceeds of £100,000 worth of debentures, together with some other borrowed moneys and certain bookkeeping items, and when these deductions have been made it will be found that the ordinary revenue of the year was really about £32,666, of which £13,062 was derived trom rates, £3736 from licenses of various kinds, £7408 from rents, and £3501 from the General Government by way of subsidy. Loan charges swallowed up £10,938 of the £32,666 —or nearly one-third of tbe net income of the city. There are, in addition, the annual charges for the borrowed moneys which have been spent upon the' water and gas works to be met, but these appear by separate accounts. Amongst the payments made during the year was a sum of £15,333 for widening Princees-street South. The lawyer's bill of the Corporation was a pretty stiff one, £1073 being set down under the head of "law costs, and parliamentary charges," while a further sum of £900 for similar services remained unliquidated at the end of the year; but thase two amounts include, we resume, the cost of preparing the abortive Municipal Bill concocted by the Council. The outlay on general sanitary purposes and the Fdver Hospital was £3039, which must be regarded as a heavy tax upon the funds of a small Corporation like Dunedin, and should made the Council ch^ry of voluntarily undertaking further responsibilities in this direction. The statement of assets aud liabilities, as on the 3lst December, shows the debts of tbe Corporation on its geneial account on that day to bave amount to £232,255, and the assets to £79 219, leaving a deficiency of £153,035. The amount of general rates outstanding at the time was only £38, and when this result is compared with the large arrears which commonly figure in iorpoi ation balance-sheets it looks extremely creditable to the vigilance of the Corjioration officers. The water works account, after deduction^ loan and all other charges, shows a net profit for tha year of £3712; but there w«re arrears ol rates to the estent of £4916 outstanding on tbe date of the balauotsheet, the real value of which the account furnishes no means of judging, save that they are taken credit for therein to the full amount. A profit of £3136 is made out to have accrued from the gas works during the same period. Some amusement was caused in the Commissioner's Court, Fiji, on Monday, June 18, by certain revelations which were made during the hearing ol a case in which an ex-butcher aud his late assistant were parties. The latt.r sued hia former employer for wages, board, and lodging ; and one of the items in the last mentioned claim i was for maintenance for a period of three weeks, duirng which the plaintiff was unable to work, owing to an injury which he had received while on his employer's business, during fche dark hours of the night. White giving his evidence, the plaintiff stated that he did not wish to reveal the particular nature of the matter about which he was eogaged at the time that he met with the hurt whioh disabled him ; but upon the defendant saying

I that ha had no objeetioa to the details being made public, it was elici-l 1 j ted that the plaintiff had been sent, during the riigh^ for two "goattf"— -• which were carefully slaughtered and disposed of nest day to confiding ctfg- ' tomers. It did not appear tbey had been positively sold as mutton, and the learned council for the plaintiff suggested that they should be regarded as venison, as there was no doubt they would prova dear to the defendant. .