The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3928, 2 August 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1881.

Refeeence was made some time ago to the right of a County Council to levy and enforce a rate in a Highway District, and we find that the Court of Appeal, before their Honors the Chief Justice and Justices Johnston and Gillies, have upheld the decision that County Councils have not the power to levy and collect a rate in any Highway District. The judgment is given at iength in a Southern contemporary, in the case Hendry v. Hutt County Council, and the Court, after dis cussing at considerable length the right of a County Council to declare certain roads in a District, County roads, proceeds to discuss the question as to which body the right to levy a rate belongs :— " The answer to the question depends on the construction of Sub. 25 of the Eating Act, 1856, which provides that 'Where two or more bodies are empowered to make and levy rates in the same district, the term local body in so much of this Act as related to the making of the valuation roll, shall mean the Municipal Council, Eoad Board, or other body having the control and management of the roads of the district, and the rates authorised to be made and levied thereon by any other body shall be made upon the valuation rolls made and provided by this Act.' The plain meaning of this section evidently is, that in respect of each district, whether Highway district, County, or Municipality, there shall be but one valuation roll for the purpose of rating whatever local body or bodies may be entitled to levy rates thereon. In the present case ' two bodies'—the County Council and the Highway Board are empowered to make and levy rates in the same district What district? for the word district may mean either county or highway district. It was clear, notwithstanding the ingenious contention of Mr Travers, that it must in this case mean the highway district, in which alone the two bodies have power of rating. The Board has no power to rate anywhere but within the road district. No doubt the road district is within the county, but it seems to us that the words 'in the same district' must be read as if they were ' over the same district,' otherwise the result would follow that the manifest intention of the section must be disregarded, and there might be two separate valuation rolls for the same road district. But.Section 4 and subsequent sections of the Bating Act provide that ' every local body' shall appoint valuers, &c, and both Council aud Eoad Boards are by the interpretation clause of the Act included in the term 'local body.' The 65th seclion, however, limits this interpretation of the term ' local body,' in that part of the Act, to the body having the control and management of the roads in the district. It was contended that the Council has the control of the County roads within the road district, and are therefore entitled to make the valuation. But it appears to us clear that ' the roads of the district' ('district' meaning, as we have already said, the ' Highway District') is equivalent in this case to the district roads over which the Highway Boards have the exclusive control by section 81 of the Public Works Act. It follows that the Highwaij Board and not the County Council has the rigid to make the valuation roll for all rating purposes, and this seems only reasonable, inasmuch as local valuers and assessment courts would have a better knowledge of the values in their own district, and could accomplish the work easier and cheaper than valuers appointed for the more extensive County."

A MUSICAL entertainment takes place in the Wesleyan Sunday .School-room, Shortland, this evening. The Choir of the Church have at great trouble, prepared an excellent programme, in which 8 >rae of our more well known amateurs take part. Br a telegram from Mr Hales, District Engineer, it appears that of the £3000 granted by the Government to the local bodies to repair the damageß by the flood, the Borough only get £1000, and the County £2000. If there is any doubt in the minds of Borough Councillors as to how they are likely to fare in this matter, would it not be wise t3 send Hia Worship the Mayor to Wellington to press upon t^e Government the claims of the raunicipa ity. If fifty pounds spent in so doing would result in an extra £1000 being obtained, it would pay to send His Worship down. At Mr Williams' Provincial Hotel, a few old identities,of the Thames met last night, and et'joyfd themselves at a Bupper in commemoration of the opening of the Thames. A jolly time was spent. An amusing yarn comes from North, Sir William Fox being implicated. The sly old felloe's been getting his name up with the ladies. In fcl 10 report of the Native Affura Committee, page 23, a young lady i 3 awarded one hundred acres, although hep mother appeared before Sir William and pressed nor glaim without avail. He was as adamant to the old gjrl, but sucjumbad to the charraa of the younger oho.^Liberty. FBOM enquiries we finJ that the Shortland Saw Mili Company have not sustained any loss from kauri logs going out to see at the time of the late flood By our southern exchanges we find that 50,000,000 feet of timber is said to be so lost, , Libbety says : I am glud to noti c another industry started in Christchurch, namely, the manufacture of cigarettes. Mr Jubal Fleming has " gone in for this line and is turning out an article quite e^uaj to the imported. The tobacco is cut on the premises, and a family of seven or eight are engaged making the cigarettes. Mbs G'iekss', &o widely known in Auckland from her able Ittiiup s on " AngloIsraelum," died in Melbourne on the 18M) pit. She had gone to Australia on a lee! uri g (our jn £snneeti:>n wi h her favorite theme-, and the Ajjjlo-lgrijeHtes have lost in her au earn et and enthusiastic- worker;

In a speech delivered by hi n at Ca*' el, Archbishop (Jrokes»id :—''Wo were badly did, wo were unable to educate our children, we were h< rded with the swine in our own hou?(!?; these houses were Ihe worst ever toll-rated in a eivlise.J lund I havo been amon^ the Maoris of New Zaalaud —.-avag- s as they are calli-d and th.-y have houses better than many of our fellow-countrymen ha T e."

Mb Morris, the manager of the National Bank, Tuumnga, has received a letter threatening him, as folio as :—" Mr Morris, I am wati-hing you very closely, and if you don't louk out I shall splir. on you nbout. how you managed to stick the bank in Canada You scoundlr I shan't kepp your secrat. nny longer, y<>u had batter let Barfield case drop or I will shoot you in jour bed (sic). You white , Get ." [The remainder of the signature is illegible]. Barfield was the man who gave warning respecting the attempt to rob the National Bmk.

Mb Sounders' motion with reference to the separation of local and colonial finance is looked on by the Op osition as equivalent to a want of confidence motion. The following is its fu'l text:—"That, no financial proposals will be ucceptab'e to this House that are not based on a strict adaptation of the annual expenditure of the colony to its annual revenue without any 'issistance from borrowed money, and that do noi, aim at the complete separation of colonial and local finance, and the entire emancipation of the latter from the control or interference of this House. The mo:ion is tubed for lOih August;