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who enjoy the benefits of police protection being obliged to bear the cost of administration. The control of the police is, however, under officers appointed by the central government.

In New Zealand there are, in addition to the ordinary forms of municipal government, River and Harbour Boards, which are established throughout the colony. The number of these at the end of 1900 was respectively thirty and twenty-six. There is a Drainage Board at Christchurch, while there are fifteen Land Drainage Boards, and a Water Supply Board at Waimakariri-Ashley.

Complete returns of the Boards and Trusts in each state are not readily obtainable; the following table, however, gives important details in connection with some of these bodies:

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The Melbourne Tramways Trust shows an expenditure on working and interest of £385,650; to this should be added £37,733 placed to reserve, £48,000 paid in dividends, and £12,069 carried forward in excess of the amount brought over from the previous year.

The amounts shown in the foregoing table under Road Trusts and Town Boards in Tasmania are included in the figures given on page 491. The outstanding loans for Tasmania are gross, sinking funds amounting to £16,142, £1,270, £415, and £2,929 respectively being established in connection with the debts of Marine Boards, Water Trusts, Road Trusts, and Town Boards. In New Zealand, also, sinking funds amounting to £9,871, £370,951, £34,184 and £791 respectively, exist in connection with the liabilities of River, Harbour, Drainage, and Water Supply Boards.

The outstanding loans of the Boards and Trusts of New South Wales constitute part of the public debt. This is true also with regard to the amounts for Victoria, except the loans of the Tramway Trust and the Melbourne Harbour Trust, the Fire Brigades Boards, and part of the loans of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, which are not guaranteed. The liabilities shown for Queensland and Western Australia, and a small portion of the Tasmanian indebtedness, also form part of the public debt of those states; but the amounts given for New Zealand are not included in the debt of the Central Government. In the foregoing table the advances made by the Governments to the borrowing bodies are included.

TOTAL REVENUE OF LOCAL BODIES.

The total revenue of all local bodies was as follows, the receipts from the various Governments being distinguished from the ordinary receipts:

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INDEBTEDNESS OF LOCAL BODISE.

The following table shows the total indebtedness of local bodies in each of the states for which returns are available. The figures include the liabilities to the Government. It must also be explained that the liabilities of Road Trusts and Town Boards in Tasmania have been included with municipalities:

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For the amounts that have just been given the local bodies are responsible directly to their creditors in part, and the general governments hold themselves directly liable for the balance. In the following table is given a division of the indebtedness of local bodies into the sum due to the State and that due to the public. It may be mentioned that the amount owing to the State is included with the general debt of the state; and in order to estimate the total State and municipal indebtedness the figures in the second column only have to be added to the figures given later on under State Finance.

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STATE AND MUNICIPAL RATES AND LAND VALUES.

The extent of the charges on land levied by the various corporations and other local bodies as rates will have been gathered from the foregoing pages; in addition thereto a land tax is levied by the General Government in all the States except Queensland and Western Australia, and the income tax imposed by Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, includes income derived from land and its use; in New South Wales, however, incomes derived from the use and occupancy of land are untaxed. In Tasmania, a police rate is also imposed, based on land values, the rates being 9d. in the £ on freehold, and 41d. in the £ on Crown Lands. The following table shows the collections for rates and the other taxes mentioned, and also the capital values of property and of land and improvements, with the amount per £ on the value of unimproved land which the rates would equal :—

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VITAL STATISTICS.

BIRTHS.

HE total number of births in each state, and the rate per thousand of the population during the year 1901 are shown in the following

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The variation in the birth-rates disclosed in these figures is not very considerable, and may be set down as due for the most part to the larger proportion of married women found in some states than in others. Taking the general average for the last five years (27-31) the birth-rate of Australia will be found lower than that of most European countries, and very much below the former experience of these states, as the following statement shows.

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