Nothing could be more fair, straight forward, and courteous to the Road Boards and the ratepayers of the Clutha than the course pursued by the County Council at its meeting on Friday last on the subject of the proposed rate. From the discus sion, which will be found embodied in our report, it will be seen that for the nonce members entirely relinquished their indi vidual opinions, and manifested a desire to be guided solely by the mind of the ratepayers on the subject. In order to induce an expressson of what that mind is the Council passed a resolution intimat. ing that they intend to propose a rate at next meeting, and asking the Road Boards within the County in the meantime to de clare their intention with regard to strik ing a rate. The Council were not ; of' course in a position to determine the amount of the combined rates that may be levied for County and Road Board pur poses, but the whole tone of the discussion dearly showed that Councillors contem • plated it would in all probability be Is 6d in the pound, one shilling to be raisedby the one body and sixpence by the other. The question wai as to which body should' levy the higher rate. , This question has been left to the ratepayers and the Boards ' to determine. Mr Jowitt very clearly and definitely indicated the consideration by which they could arrive at a decision on the point He iaid uit would take " the whole of a shilling rate to do justice " to the County roads, and if the County " were to levy a shilling rate the whole , " would , be : expended oit County roads..
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THE CLUTHA LEA DEB.
