THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2602, 10 May 1877, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1877.

At the statutory meeting of the Eorough Council the other night to consider the accounts for the past year and-finally settle the same, reference was casually made to an item of £960, subsidies, which had been stopped from the Borough. There does not seem to be much known about this matter, further than that an extraordinary deduction has been made from a sum payable to the Borough ; and we must say that Councillors do not seem disposed to put themselves about in trying to elucidate the affair, they having treated it almost with indifference, although their estimated -expenditure for the current financial year exceeds the estimated revenue by nearly a thousand pounds. All the information that has been received was ,eot through the Bank. The subsidy payable to the Borough for the half year was £964 Ms 4d, and of this sum a paltry £6 was passed to the credit of the Borough account at the bank; the officials of the latter informing the Borough authorities that the balance had been deducted for the Borough's contribution for maintenance of hospitals, lunatic asylums, reformatories, &c. Up to the present time no information has been vouchsafed to tbe Borough as to.the principle on which the deductions have been made, although the Town Clerk . has written letters and ..repeated telegrams on the matter. .It will be in the recollection of our readers that the President of the Thames Hospital, in reply to a communication regarding the continuance of subsidies to the^ Hospital, was informed that the usual subsidy would, be granted for the current half year, and that the Government intended to deal with the whole question of hospitals and charitable institutions during next session of Parliament; but it . was also ..stated that these subsidies to be paid would be deducted from the amouuts accruing to Boroughs, Counties and Highway Districts. Now we find that £958 have been deducted from the Borough subsidy ; £48 from the ©ounty subsidy, and nothing from the Highway districts. If this is not an attempt to -•'*' squeeze " the"' I'Borough out of existence, we do,, riot know what to call it; and if the Councillors submit to it any longer without a strong protest, they will not deserve the confidence of the.burgesses, who are being deprived of their legitimate means to enrich the County in every possible way. It will be seenthat the estimated income from Government subsidy put down in' the assets of the Borough for the current financial year is £1698, and estimated expenditure on charitable institutions, £1075 ;;?but if the Government can make a deduction of £958 from the Borough subsidies for its half-yearly : contribution '-..t0 hospitals, &c, there will be a balance on the wrong side in this one item; and instead of being £1000 to the badat the. end of the financial year, they will be moro, oven with the utmost economy, and with sums, set down for

necessary works utterly inadequate for the most pressing requirements. There is something about this transaction of the Government towards the Borough which looks extremely suspicious, and if Councillors do not look better after the interests of the Borough, by insisting on their rights, they will fiud themselves driven to levying special rates, when perhaps the burgesses will wake up and do something. The Borough's share of the gold duty is pledged for keeping the " big pump going, while the ratepayers have to tax themselves to maintain seven miles of goldfields roads; now it looks very much as if the Borough is to be made responsible for the whole district's contribution for hospitals and charitable purposes. Will the burgesses quietly submit ?