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52
deficiency of £1,000 or thereabout, which would in reality necessitate their subscribing
about 1d. in the £ to the expenses of the previous half-year. In order
that your Vestry might have better opportunity of judging the fairness of our
estimate, we directed that the Vestry Clerk's report should accompany our last
estimate ; no explanations of this character have, we believe, been afforded the
members of your Vestry before.

We think it only fair to state that the Assistant Auditor of the Local
Government Board, on the 6th January instant, expressed his opinion "that
our accounts were in a very satisfactory state," and our balance sheet—copy of
which is appended hereto—was certified by him as correct.
We have also tested the percentage of loss during the last half-year as compared
with the same of preceding half-years, with the following results:—
Half-year ended September, 1888, loss = 17¾ per cent.
„ „ March, 1889, „ = 17 9/10
„ „ September, 1889 „ = 16 9/10 „
„ „ March, 1890 „ = 16 9/10 „
„ „ September, 1890 „ = 15 9/10 „
It would, therefore, seem that our assertion that the rates have been collected
with more speed during our term of office, is supported by the foregoing
comparisons.