44 



THE HUMMING BIRD. 



[June i, 1 89 1 



reflections, a dark, straight, rufous brown tuft over the 

 bill ; lobes and cheeks of same colour, forming in part 

 like a mosaic coronet round the forehead, all the rest 

 of upper part dark brown ; wings and tail, pale brown, 

 especially on external edges ; chin, rufous ; throat and 

 breast, dark metallic green ; the ornamental feathers 

 of breast reaching the legs, two ornamental feathers 

 starting from the primaries, of nearly the same length 

 as wing, very pale brown, nearly white ; lower part of 

 breast and vent, dark brown at base, remainder 

 metallic green ; flanks, abdomen and under-tail coverts, 

 dark rufous ; legs and bill, fleshy colour. 

 : Total length, n inches ; wing, 5f ; tail, 4 ; bill, i|. 



Female. — Forehead, dark brown, with glossy purple 

 reflections, all the rest of upper and under part red- 

 dish brown ; primaries and rectrices yellowish brown. 



Length, same as male. 



Habitat, one of the islands close to New Guinea ; 

 but I have not been able to ascertain which. 



The principal difference between this species and 

 S. Wallace's, lies in the colour of the forehead, in its 

 general colour, which is of much darker brown, and 

 in its smaller size. 



Poor Rate and General Rate Taxes in the 

 Parishes of St. Giles in the Fields and 

 St. George, Bloomsbury. 



I have just received Demand Note of Rates due 

 and payable April 27th, 1891. 



From 109 my assessment has been increased to 

 ^134. I was so surprised at such increase that I 

 went immediately to the Vestry Offices and inquired 

 from Mr. Henry Hulford, the Collector of Rates for 

 the said Parishes, the reason of such increase in my 

 assessment. With his usual urbanity Mr. Henry 

 Hulford told me that this was the result of the last 

 assessment made for the parish. He asked me what 

 was my rent, and after I told him he said it was quite 

 right, as the assessment was based on the rent paid 

 by leaseholders, that it was the law of the country, 

 and that nothing could be done. 



I have to thank Mr. Henry Hulford for the infor- 

 mation he gave me, but I must say that I am at a 

 loss to know why the assessment is fixed on the rent 

 paid, and not on the real value of the ground and 

 premises. Everyone knows that some districts of 

 London are increasing in value and others are 

 decreasing. 



Well, I think the Parishes of St. Giles in the Fields 

 and St. George is in the latter case for business 

 purposes at least. It is not enough west for the 

 custom of the rich and aristocratic families, and it is 

 not enough east for the wholesale trade as carried in 

 the City. All the rich families have emigrated far 

 West, and South and West Kensington with Piccadilly 

 and Regent Street are the London districts patronized 

 by aristocracy. 



In these circumstances it seems than instead of 

 increasing the assessments on properties situated in 

 the Parishes of St. Giles in the Fields and St. George, 

 it should have been the reverse. 



Now as to the manner of assessing. It is valued 

 according to the rent actually paid by the leaseholder. 



The defects of this procedure can immediately 

 be seen. 



If you have contracted a lease at a high rent, be- 

 cause you have been made to believe that such part 

 of London was capital for business, proportionally 

 you have to pay very heavy taxes, meanwhile your 

 neighbour, who has an old lease or has been more 

 acute than yourself when letting will pay less than 

 half the taxes than yourself. Is it just ? 



If on the contrary you have had the good luck to 

 rent some premises at a nominal value, you will 

 scarcely pay any taxes at all. I ask again : Is it just ? 



Undoubtedly there is something wrong here, and 

 I say that assessments of rates ought to be made 

 uniform for all, taking as basis the medium value of 

 all the properties situated in the Parish, and not the 

 actual rent paid by each householder, which is 

 excessive for some and quite the reverse for others. 



I can guarantee that the reason of so many failures 

 in business are due to the exhorbitant prices paid for 

 rent and the excessive taxes following suit. 



If you start business with money of your own, after 

 a few years struggle all is gone. On the other hand, 

 if you work on credit, you get soon into debts, and 

 the result is failure. Excepting the very few trades 

 which deal in objects of first necessity, all the others 

 earn scarcely enough to pay their rent, taxes and 

 living, and after many years' struggles they are just in 

 the same position as when they began, when not worse. 



I think it is quite time that the London County 

 Council should exert itself in procuring the 

 passage of a short Act regarding an equitable and 



UNIFORM BASIS OF ASSESSMENT. 



To be continued. 



THE PANAMA CANAL. 



Continued from pages 5, 12, 22, 30. 



Considering the Interoceanic Canal as one of the 

 greatest industrial and scientific work of tbis Century 

 and the completion of same as of the utmost interest 

 to all Countries, I give below, as published by the 

 well-known Petit Journal of Paris, M. Bonaparte 

 Wyse's report on the success of his négociations 

 with the Government of Columbia, for the proroga- 

 tion of ten years, granted to the Liquidation of the 

 Panama Co., to complete the Canal. 



Rapport de M. Bonaparte Wvse sur le 

 Canal de Panama. 



Lettre à M. Monchicourt. 



Au mois de mars de l'année dernière, à peine 

 nommé au poste qui vous a été confié par la justice, 

 vous avez spontanément fait appel à mon concours 

 dans le but d'essayer de relever l'affaire du Canal 

 Interocéanique dont j'avais été l'initiateur et qui se 

 trouvait fort gravement compromise par des fautes 

 auxquelles j'étais resté étranger. 



La première phase du rôle que vous me proposâtes 

 consistait à me charger de négociations d'ordre diplo- 

 matique avec la Puissance Souveraine de l'Isthme de 

 Panama et de recherches techniques supplémentaires 

 sur le terrain traversé par le Bosphore artificiel Amé- 



