ITO rss EDROP. OP TIM SPXCTAI014"1
Sas —Your correspondent "S. B." in the issue of February 23rd seems to imply that Bounaemouth's low rate of 5s. in the pound is due to municipal trading. This is, however, not the case. The rates were relieved last year by a halfpenny in the
pound, but not from gas, water, or electric light, which the Corporation does not own, or from tramways, which it does. The profit was made from other sources incidental to seaside resorts, such as the pier and the golf-links, and the total amount available was 21,209. Poole, on the other hand, possesses, corporate property with a revenue of £2,500 a year. It has carried out a costly sewage scheme, has made various improvements in the town, and last year some thirteen hundred ratepayers out of a possible seven thousand carried a poll in favour of the purchase of the water under- taking. Poole has an area of ten thousand acres with a rate- able value of 2145,000. Bournemouth has an area of five thousand eight hundred acres with a rateable value of 2576,000, and its population is about double that of its
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