A.—4,

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affected by the alteration. Certain of these districts, seventeen in number, are declared to be " municipalities," and the Governor in Council may, on a petition from fifty persons, being the owners or occupiers of property to the A'alue of twenty pounds on the assessment roll in any district, unless a counter-petition is presented from a larger number of similar persons, constitute such district a rural municipality under the Act. There were nineteen municipalities in 1879. Every municipality is a police district, and the Cleric of Petty Sessions is the Clerk of the Municipality " Every male of the age of twenty-one years whose " name is on the assessment roll as proprietor of property within the municipality " of the annual value of not less than five pounds, or as occupier of property " within the municipality of the annual value of not less than ten pounds," is an elector. The municipality is governed by a Council of seven Councillors, one of whom is the Warden. Two Councillors on the second Friday in December every year, and on every third year three Councillors, go out of office, the annual election is held on the day previous. The Warden is the Returning Officer, and all electors who have paid all rates due up to four o'clock on the day preceding the election may vote, according to the following scale as shown by the'assessment roll:— Annual Value of Property. Number of Azotes, £5 and under £40 in the case of a proprietor . 1 £10 „ £40 in the case of an occupier 1 £40 „ £80 2 £80 „ £120 3 £120 ~ £160 4 £160 „ £200 5 £200 „ £240 6 £240 „ £280 7 £280 „ £320 8 £320 „ £360 . . ..9 £360 and upwards , 10 The election is by ballot, each elector having to sign a similar declaration as to identity and payment of rates as in the election in Hobart or Launceston, and receiving a number of ballot papers equal to the number of votes he is entitled to give; not, as in those towns, one ballot paper marked with the number of votes to which he is entitled. The Warden is elected from their own body by the Council on the day after the annual election. Two Auditors were to be annually elected by the ratepayers at the same time and in the same manner as the Councillors, but this is now repealed, and the accounts are audited by the Audit Office. Acceptance of office is compulsory, under a penalty, in the case of the Warden of £50, and in case of a Councillor or Auditor of £25. The same fines apply to resignation of office. The Warden is ex officio a Justice of the Peace, and is invested within the municipality with all the powers of a Police or Stipendiary Magistrate. The power of the Governor to raise a "rural police rate" ceases within a municipality The provisions as to assessment are in the same words as in the liobart Town Act, and the roll must be affixed to the Municipal Council chambers, and to all police offices and post offices in the municipality ten days before the hearing of appeals. The Council is empowered to make general rates for all purposes, or separate rates for special purposes. But " such rates shall not, exclusively of the police " rate and the road rate, in any case collectively or separately exceed the sum of " one shilling and sixpence in the pound in any one year " Occupiers of Crown lands under lease or license are liable to pay only half rates. Government property and the usual institutions are exempt. Loans may be raised on the security of special rates made for the purpose, but only on a resolution adopted by a majority of the ratepayers assembled in public