A.—4,

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are required to be paid into the Bank within seventy-two hours of their receipt, and can be drawn out only by the cheque of three Councillors appointed to draw cheques. The Council in any divided municipality must appropriate one-third of its net revenus to be expended on the separate wards or ridings in the proportion to the amount of general rates raised in each. The valuation may be made from time to time, and the rateable property is to be * computed at its net annual value, that is to say, at the rent at which the same might " reasonably be expected to let from year to year, free of all usual tenants' rates and " taxes, and deducting therefrom the probable annual costs of insurance and other " expenses (if any) necessary to maintain such property in a state to command " such rent Provided that no rateable property shall be computed as of an " annual value of less than five pounds per centum upon the fair capital value of " the fee-simple thereof; but that every person occupying (otherwise than under " any lease) Crown lands for pastoral purposes only shall be rated in respect of " annual value thereof as aforesaid, and not on the capital value thereof." Lands belonging to or occupied by the Crown or the Municipality, or by the usual religious and charitable institutions, and lands vested in the Minister of Public Instruction, are exempt. The general rates, to be made at least once in every year, on an estimate of the proposed expenditure, may not exceed two shillings and sixpence or be less than sixpence in the pound for any one year Separate rates, not exceeding sixpence in the pound, may be made for expenditure in any particular part of the municipality so rated, and separate accounts must be kept of each such rate. Unoccupied land, on which no rates have been paid for five years, may be taken and let by the Council on seven years' leases, the rents being used to pay rates and expenses, and the balance held in trust for the owners , but after thirty years the land and rents, if unclaimed, revert to the Council. The Council may borrow for permanent works to an amount so that the outstanding debt, deducting any sinking fund, shall not exceed ten times the average net income of the Municipality for three years previous to the date of raising any loan. The purposes for which loans may be raised are defined, including the formation of streets, gasworks, waterworks, drainage, municipal buildings, markets, hospitals, libraries, museums, &c. Before borrowing, a statement must be published of the amount and purpose of the loan, and any twenty ratepayers may demand that the question of raising the loan shall be submitted to the ratepayers, upon which a poll must be taken by ballot. A sinking fund of two per cent, per annum must be paid on every loan, and invested in Victorian Government stock, in the name of the Treasurer of Victoria, and of the Municipality, until the Commissioners of Audit certify that the accumulated sinking fund is sufficient to pay off the loan. Each loan must be kept in a separate account at the Bank, and if any balance is left, not required for the work for which the money was borrowed, it must be paid into the sinking fund account of that loan. An endowment at the rate of two pounds for pound in shires, and pound for pound in boroughs, on the general rates raised was made payable out of the Consolidated Fund from the Ist June, 1875, till the 31st December, 1879. The Governor may declare any Crown lands, and the Council may declare any land it has acquired, to be a public highway; and " the absolute property " in the land heretofore or hereafter reserved or proclaimed under any Land Act "as a road, street, or highway, is and shall be vested in the Crown." The Governor may proclaim any road on which toll is collected to be a "main road," or to be a " common toll road "; and, in the latter case, may determine what Municipalities shall share the tolls taken on it, and in what proportion, the tolls are then taken by a manager of the common toll road appointed by the Councils concerned, or in default by the Governor, who pays them over to the Municipalities. The tolls both of main roads and common toll roads must be expended upon the maintenance of the road so proclaimed. Very ample powers are given for the construction and maintenance of the