:
COPY.
Enclosure 1
to Despatch No.488 of the
7th. November, 1903.
239
Hon. Colonivl Secretary,
C.O.
50401
The following is a stekepant of the
reasons for the passing of the Ordinance.
There were several houses situated upon the
Peak Road, which have been in existence for a number of years past, and which ere either wholly or partly above the 800 feet contour. The Water Supply, Gas Lighting, Sewerage, lo., in respect of which the rates amount to 13%, extend to these houses in the same way as they do to all other parts of the City.
These houses have, rightly in point of fact, but wrongly in point of law, been charged rates at the rate of 13%, as if they lay inside the 300 feet contour instead of out- side it. According to the Ordinance, they should only have been charged 10%, the same as the Peak and Hill District, where no Public Gas Lighting exists and no provision is made for fire- extinction.
$
The Honourable the Colonial Treasurer
having Jiscovered that the houses were being illegally rated and baving called attention to the fact, it was considered desirable to remedy the matter by extending the City Boundary. Phere being no roads contouring the hillside or other means of defining a boundary such as is usually adopted, recourse was had to a con- tour line at a sufficient alevation to include the houses refer-
red to.
Tithout a very troublesome survey along several miles of steep hillside, for which no officer is avail- able, it is impossible to prepare a plan showing with any degres of accuracy the old and new boundaries, Nor would any useful purpose be served by preparing such a plan, as far as present requirements go.
Whilst the Southern Boundary was being rectified, advantage was taken of the opportunity to effect a necessary alteration in the Bastern Boundary. The bridge specified in the definition of the old boundary has entirely dis- appeared, the strean having been diverted in the course of in- provements in this neighbourhood. The line of the old boundery also ran across the middle of the new Cotton Hills. Some buildings have also been erected during the past few years immediately beyond the old boundary line.
I attach a small plan of the City on which
the