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1816. That is exactly 1s.?—The whole of it is now nearly 2s. in
the pound for all the public roads; lighting, cleansing, watering, repairing,
and such like.
1817. You say only 4d. of that 2s. goes towards lighting?—Yes.
1818. Then it is ls. 8d. in the pound for the repair, watering,
cleansing, and so forth, of your roads?—There is the dusting to be
taken out of that
1819. How much do you take out for that?—I should say that is
about 1d.; not more than that.
1820. That still leaves 1s. 7d. for the repair of the roads ?—Yes.
1821. You think it amounts to that in the pound?—Yes, that is
about it, for all the management of the road; that is the whole 20
miles, including the 2i miles of road.
1822. (Chairman.) Have you any paving done in the parish?
—"We have at present. When the Local Management Act came into
operation, we borrowed 5,000l, for the purpose of paving this 2½ miles
of road, or as much as we could afford to do ; but the rates are so heavy,
in addition to the poor rates, that we are compelled to go on very slowly
with it. "We should be glad to pave them all if we could, but we have
not the funds to do it.
1823. "What is the amount of your debt ?—About 4,000l.
1824. (Col. Pennant,) Have you not power to spread that over a
number of years ?—Ten years.
1825. (Chairman.) "What interest do you pay ?—Five per cent.
1826. And your portion of the principal every year ?—Yes.
(Mr. Paget.) 500l, a year.
(Mr. Eustace.) "We are known to be heavily burthened in our
parish, so I suppose we could not get the money on such good terms
as other parishes.
1827. (Col. Pennant.) "What prevents you extending it over a
greater number of years than ten ? Is it that you could not get money
lent you?—(Mr. Eustace.) "We advertised, and we had only one response
to the advertisement. We tried a second time, and we only had
the same offer again, and we were compelled to come to the terms of
the party who offered. With respect to the value of property on the
line of road, we think that the property, instead of rising in value, is
now depreciating. The noise and and turmoil are so great on these
2½ miles of highway, that the houses which three or four years ago let
for about £28 a year are now let for 20l. They came to us to reduce
the rates. Evidence was produced to us of the depreciation, and we had
to reduce the rates in consequence of the value of these premises going
down