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the same practically with the exception of Item 3 under Direct Taxes. she Auto- mobile Tax which has bzen struck out as the Committee felt that this tax should go to a special Riad Fund. It may be asked how can the Municipal Committee recommend a total reverue in 1923-1924 greater than the revenue in 1922 1923 in the face of the present outlook? We have gained the impression that when we presented our memorial to the Sec- retary of the WNavy and Congressional party at St. ‘'homas that St. Croix should receive a greater share of the Federal appropriation than formerly, but natur- ally if we shaped our expenditures more in accordance with our revenu:s we would cut down our share of the Federal aliotment. The Municipal Committee can only estimate our revenues this year at $30,000, but as we figure that there will be a cash balance of about S6O, 000 left over at the end of this fiscal year which when a l4:d will make $140,009, and this toge her wiith i'ederal ailotment as prom- ised by the Government we present a budget totalling Frs. 1,408,163.973. The next change made in the Revenue side of the Budget is under Sundry Rev- enues. Add 4 (a) from the Municipality of St. Taomas and St. John toward the support of Richmond Penitentiary was raised here in 1921 and also last year and forgotten, KFrom a statement furnished by the Director of Police the cost of maintenance and subsistence of prison- erg from St. Thomas for the last fiscal year was Frs. 12,884.50, this item has therefore lkeen posted with Frs 12, 000.50 with the expectation that it will come in. ‘This is practically all the changes made on the Revenue side of the budget. Now we come to the expenditure side. All the changes on the Expenditure side of the budget can be 3sumarized in onc sentence. Qvery Department will re- ceive the same amouaat as granted last year. We have made no reductions in salaries as budgetted last year, but we have recommended no increases as ow- ing to the shortage in revenues we could not see how this could adequately be done. Whatever new office we have found has been taken off, because we feel that owing to the present outlook no new offices should be created, as a result we have effective a saving of about $30,000 more or less. The Com- mittee 1s of the opinion that this saving should be used to the best interest of the ilsland and we recommend its expendi- ture in accordance with the additional items listed in our recomm:ndations. We have added an item of Equipment 1 a under the Colanial Council Frs. 660 for the purchase of 50 chairs thereby increasing the seating accommodation for those persons who desire gto show their interest in our work by attending the meetings. Next Public Works Dept. No. 50 Kquipment we have added an amount of Frs. 25,000 for tne purenase 5T LD X AV i ; of a well drilling outfit. We hava heard . a good deal of the sufl rings of mes and | beast during the recent drought conse- | guently we are of the opinion that if such | an outfit is purchased, placed under the - control of the Public Works Dept. and . rented out to owners of Estates when - needed it would help to relieve the water | situation to some extent. I believe the . estaie owners would readily acquiesce . with such a scheme. Under item 50 . Road Division an amount of Frs. 2,500 18 . put down for reallotment cos roads, when . the new road ordinance comes into force | ali the roads will have to be remeasured. ~ This is a small matter but it is laborious | work. we feel that the amount budget- s ted is not to much: Next you wi'l see ~an _amount (. Frs. 45,000 for operation and general repairs of roads in connec- tion with the Road roiler and other mackinery. If thisis passed we will be in a position to have our roads repaired and put in good shape. This is not an attempt to ease the burden of taxation frgm anyone, [t is a known fact that” sinee we have acquired the Rows: roller it bas been unable to bz ?J'raf.ed on account of lack of funds, so much so that it has obtained the name of '“Martin Luther’”’ from his famous dictum “‘Here I standI cannot 5 otherwise.”” Next, under New Works you will see an amount of Frs. 30,000 4 for a public cistern ftor Christiansted. The drought has not yet passed and 1 am sure we all remember the sufferings of the poorer classes for water. The amount is to be expended on the recommenda- tion of the Municipal Comwmittee owing ty the fact that the site has not been decided upon as yet. Now we have saved this amount off the budzet, I see n) reason why we should not use it for improving the water condition in this town while waiting for Secretary Denby’s ~ -pert. 1 have spoken with the Public - Works officer (not officially). I think our views coincide., 1 am sorry that our funds are not sufficient to provide a cis- tern for Frederiksted but iet us hope that {rom next budget we will be able to provide for a cistern for that towa. I received a letter from the Governor stating that the other items listed below under New Works were recommended by the "üblic Works Officer but were by his order stricken from the budget so as to keep the expenses within the limits of lust year’s budget. Th2 Municipal Com- mittee w de an investigation of all this and found that it was necessary to be done. 1 am glad to say we have been able to make provision for same and squeezed the amount to do so. | 1 hope that you willfeel that the Muni- cipal Commitiee has within the short space of time worked fairly satisfactori- ly, and in commending to your vote these amendments I trust they will have the whole hearted support cf the Council. To be continued, TELEGRAMS. ST. CROIX STATION. Dublie, June 22ad.—Ireland and France broke even yesterday in play in the Davis Cup competition. Henri Co- chett, Fraance, defeated iCd Merae in the initial singles muaten 61 6-3 13-11 and the Hon. Cecil Campbell won from Jean Boroca, the French star, 6 1 7-5 6-0. London., June 22nd.—Although the personnel of the navy has been reduced from 151 000 to 95, 000 since 1913, the aggregate pay has inc-eased from 8,900, 000 to 14,000,000 pounds. This striking fact emerres from the report of the se- lect committee of navy estimates, issued today, which recommeands cuttin> pay all round and organizing and reducing the administrative departments, Among the exampless given is maintenance of of four surgeon Rear Admirals at cost of 8,431 pounds, as compared with three of these officers before the war at 4,493 pounds. The eommittee also states the warship Newzealand, presented t» the navy by the Newzealand Government at a cost of 1,700,000 pounds. was sold for 21,000. because it was included in the Washingtion agreement list of serapped vessels and was disposed of «ta time when the market for ships was glutted. New York, June 22nd, —While trea- sury officials today were concentrating their atteantion on the Berengaria, the Baltic slipped into quarantine with 6,182 bottles of liquor, under the British Gov- ernment seal, for her next Eastbound voyage. in defiance of United States dry ey Lonuon, June 22nd—In connection with the arrival of the liner Berengaria at New York, it is declared in well in- formed quarters *hat the British Govern- ment in no way challenges the authority of the United States officials to break the British consular seals and confiscite the liquor, it being recognized that the juris- diction of th.e British Government in the case of li~ior, or any other goods sealed at a B usn port, ceases once -the three mile limit iS passed. London, June 22nd—Government offi- cials, disavowing any concurrence with the action of shipping companies in bringing sealed supplies of ship liquor into American ports, concedes that American customs officiais are within their legal rights if they break the sea!s and confiscate the liquor. The breakage of the seals of foreign customs departments 1s a common occurence in British ports, and the British Government wili there- fore unot prolest against the American action. There is no likelihood of any. Anglo American incident arising from the shippers action. If the shipping companies take their ecase into courts they do s: on their owp initiative an:} without Government backirg. It isunder- stood that the Aquitania will sail for New York on Saturday carrying a sup- ply of liguor sea'ed, similariy to that cai- ried by the Olympic on Wednesday.