A largely attended meeting of ratepayers was held at Balcairn on Friday afternoon to consider matters connected with the Road Board. Mr C. Ecsor, chairman of the Board j presided, and read an approximate statement of the receipts and expenditure of the Board from January Ist to August 26th, 1880 :— Expenditure on various roads, £5039 12s 9d ; roads and bridges, £260 7s 2d; salaries, £336 8s; materials and incidentals, £2030 16s ss. The Cr. balance was £16 12s 6d, making a total of £7713 163 lOd. The re ceipts were—Balance on January Ist, £177 3s 4d; Government grant, £3198 15s lOd; fixed deposit, with interest withdrawn, and placed to current acoount, £12,780 (less fixed deposit £9000), £3780; interest, £82 4s 4d; rates, £391 19s 3d; dog collars, £106 17s 9d. The estimated receipts for one year were £1537 Is lOd. There was therefore at pre* sent a sum of £9000 on fixed deposit, a portion of which would shortly be placed to open account. With regard to the policy of the Board, the chairman said that it was in tended to take advantage of the present state of the labor market to do as many works as Were really warited

Mr T. Douglas was glad to learn that there was still a fair sum available. They were spending at the rate of £7000 or £8000 per annum, and he thought it would be advisable to husband their capital, seeing that the sub sidies were to cease.
