Oranges will be cheaper in Parl next month—not a very important fact, perhaps, especially residents in China, but nevertheless curious as an illustration of the way things are managed in France, The Government and the Paris Municipal Council are permanently at loggerheads over money matters. Quite a respectable number of years ago, the State agreed to make a larger contribution toward the expenses of the Paris police force. The capital's numerous official build ings needed protection, which of course costs money, and it was only right that the State, as the cashier of the whole country, should do something to relieve the burden on the "ratepayers of Unfortunately, if we may believe the oft-repeated statements of authorized representatives of the Municipal Council, the State has not carried out its promise, Cabinets have come and gone but} have either omitted to ask Parliament for the necessary credits or have failed to get them voted, and the result is that the city regards the State in the light of a bad debtor whose promises are not to be trusted. Last year the coun oiller who drew up the report on the city Budget made some strong observations on this point, and went so far as to suggest that the Council should go on strike and refuse to vote its Budget unless the State paid up.
To please Spain, with which country it is negotiating for a commercial treaty, the Government recently asked the Council abolish the octroi duty of Frs. 85 per 100 kilos on oranges. The Council replied that this would reduce its revenue by Frs. 10,000, 000 a year, and that such a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.