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H.—l4

COPY OF PROVISIONS AS TO SUBSIDIES TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN FORCE IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

161. (1.) The Governor shall, on or before the thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine hundred and six, and every third year thereafter, by Proclamation, declare the class within which each shire shall be placed respectively; and in determining the class of each shire the following matters shall be taken into consideration : — (a.) The extent of the shire; (b.) The probable annual revenue derivable from a rate of one penny in the pound on the unimproved capital value of rateable land in the shire; (c.) The necessary annual expenditure; (d.) The extent of the roads to be made and maintained; (c.) The difficulty of construction and maintenance of roads and other public works; (/.) The facilities to be afforded to vehicular traffic; (g.) The extent of public works maintained by the Government; (h.) The extent of Crown lands (other than parks or reserves for public recreation) from which the Council will receive no rates, and the existence of which in the shire involves expenditure by the Council on road-construction, or in other ways. (2.) Ihere shall be payable out of the consolidated revenue, for the endowment of the shires in every year, a sum not less than one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, to be appropriated by Parliament for such purpose and paid to the shires on the following basis : — (a.) The endowment of a shire of the first class shall be such sum, not exceeding ten shillings in the pound on the proceeds of the general rate received by the Council during the next preceding }'ear, as the Governor may determine: Provided that in any case in which the Governor does not consider that the necessities of the shire warrant the payment of an endowment, no endowment shall be paid; (b.) The endowment of a shire of the second class shall be fifteen shillings in the pound on such proceeds; (c.) The endowment of a shire of the third class shall be twenty shillings in the pound on such proceeds; (d.) The endowment of a shire of the fourth class shall be twenty-five shillings in the pound on such proceeds; (c.) The endowment of a shire of the fifth class shall be thirty shilling in the pound on such proceeds; (f.) The endowment of a shire of the sixth class shall be such sum, not less than forty shilling's in the pound on such proceeds, as the Governor may determine.