New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5094, 21 July 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1877.

An estimate of the income and expenditure to be derived by the Wellington Municipality from the water rate for the period of nine months from Ist July; 1877, to 31st March, 1878) has been prepared, and a summary of it may not be uninteresting to our readers—to such of them, at all events, as are householders living in the borough. The full amount of rates on properties supplied with water was, according to the last valuation, , £3OOO. The income from ; half rates on ! properties ‘‘not supplied with water is put down at £2lB 15s. From stores valued at £32,535 and rated at 2J per cent, a revenue of £614 is anticipated ; from Government supply, £225 ; additions, £IOO ; machinery, £150; from the wharf, £609 (less wages, £IOO, £599) —making a total of £4886.'_ The expenditure is estimated at £4400, made up of the following items :—lnterest on £BO,OOO for nine months at 6 per cent, per annum, £3600 ( ; salaries and sundries, £BOO. If these estimates are founded on , reliable data, as we presume they are, they prove a very, satisfactory state ’ of affairs. Most people entertain a dislike to pay taxes ; but if there is one sort of impost About which there is less grumbling than over any other, it is a rate levied for the supply of this.great necessary of life—an abundance of pure water for.domestic, purposes, and fob the’ prevention of the spread of fire; which in large' and growing cities, and especially in one in which almost all the buildings are of wood, is an ever-present danger. Wellington, when the waterworks now in progress are completed, as they shortly will be, will compare favorably with other centres of population as regards her water supply ; and this is a subject, in our opinion, for general congratulation.