The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1882.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4263, 30 August 1882, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1882.

The Counties will doubtless be much

pleased, with Major .Atkinson's Road and Bridges .Construction Sill. It is like the man—a wonderful thing. Should it be* comer lair, no more general rates need be levied by County Councils, as at present, because by,the new and improved process the work, can be done in a manner much more - pleasing to the ratepayers., Let us say a County Council, for instance, wants £10,000 for special purposes. Instead of levying a rate to pay the interest and sinking fund on a loan of that amount, it levies a special rate to secure £2500, and gets £7500 from the Government to make up the amount of £10,000. The County Council then gives the Government ten debentures of £255 each, one payable on the Ist of May on every ensuing year, for ten years, until the £2500 is paid. To the honor of the Government, they charge no interest on the one-fourth they advance, and make the Counties a present of three-fourths. In this way the Colonial Treasurer has shewn how firmly he believes that it is more blessed to give than to receive. £200,000 being this year set apart in the bill for counties, next year the Colonial Treasurer will have £50.000 in paper county bonds. What he will v do with them, or how or when they wiH be paid we neeil not stay lo inquire; all the Treasurer wants is the bonds to come in as an asset in next year's accounts. The Counties will be equally well satisfied, because they will have bad the money, and-got-.rid of their paper. Tlie Thames County Council for instance would take the whole of the £200,000 on these terms, and so would other councils. Indeed, the most reluctant of counties would put the Counties Act in force if this bill became law. £100,000 is to be taken out of the loan, and another £100,000 out of the Consolida* 'ted Fund. Thus, all is simplicity itself. .When . we come, however, to district road and river works, the scheme becomes mare complex, find consequently less interesting. The Government take for this purpose another £100,000 out of the loan,. and £100,000 out of the trust funds to make district roads. The amounts are equal so the main road account is on the same footing as the district road account. Only for one year, however, is the £200,000 wanted out of the loan, because after that the Treasurer will have a cart load of kites on which, to operate. There is, however, one marked difference between the main roads and the district roads, as ;in the' former case paper has to be given for one fourth 1 of the advance; but in the latter case, for the whole ameunt. For iraain roads, ,no interest is paid for the advance,;, ,but^ for district roads a ! Tyrj,v:heVry.#YateV, of,,interest indeed, iit'?sub v^ection two of clause 26, which reads its follows, is understood

rightly :—" The special rate to be levied in such case shall be sufficient to pay fifteen equal yearly instalments, each of which "shall be equal to nine pounds per centum on the whole amount applied for by the local body." The present Treasury staff will be quite unable to keep the run of all these papers and bonds, so a new Department will have to .be created for the purpose, and called the County and Koad Board Debenture, Bill, Discount, and Debenture Issue Department. No one within bur knowledge "has anythinfi; but a bare idea of the meaning of clause 46, but the rubric says that members of local bodies are to be held personally liable for improper dealings with the money, but they are not to be imprisoned if they do not pay. Such are some of the details of one of Major Atkinson's latest developments of pawn-broking finance.