Pièce JM-AIY/OttomanRegisters/Vol13/p10b/item63 - Upon a telegram by the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding carriage taxes, undated

1 item

Upon the telegram sent on 29 August 1908 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding the carriage taxes being taken from the carriage drivers in Jerusalem following the note given by the carriage drivers Abdülhamid Dakkak and Deyyib El-Davudî
A copy of the attached telegram of the said drivers has been examined in our council. Even though it has been stated that there is no constructed road within the city, it goes without saying that there is a proliferation of buildings and constructions outside all across the city, and this process is in process. Amid all these developments, ten kilometers of macadam has thus been constructed on various directions. Everyone sees that these macadams are repaired by the municipality every time. The following evidences indicate that the said macadams are damaged by the passing of carriages: In Jerusalem, from Bab-al Halil to the municipal hospital and to the company named Mia Şarim, there are averagely 80 active carriages on a daily basis. If these make 25 shuttlings a day, that would make roughly two thousand passings and if a macadam, through which two thousand passings take place each day, is left without being repaired, it will naturally become devastated. The said roads are considered as streets of the town and the municipality is thus obliged for their reparation; if these roads outside the city walls, which are located in a place transformed into a developed kaza and ready for the passing of the whole people, are left without being repaired, it will be completely impossible to pass through them in winter due to mud and in summer due to dust. Furthermore, they also damage the general health and eyes of passersby and people in general. It has been considered absolutely necessary and mandatory that due action be taken in order to remove these inconveniences, and the said roads be repaired. As for the municipal incomes, rental price of the real properties owned by the municipality is not 9,000 liras but 1,200 liras, as indicated in the attached records, and as is stated in a telegram sent later by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, an approximate income of 500,000 piasters falls to the municipal income after the deduction of intestines, loads, carriages and storage incomes. The said sum would only suffice for the necessary fixed expenditures of the municipality; hence, if carriage drivers, who will be the only beneficiaries of such a reparation, do not participate in and help for covering the reparation costs of these roads, it will not be possible for the municipal fund to repair them and they will remain in a dilapidated state. The daily tax of 4 piasters taken by the municipal fund from each active carriage is received in exchange for necessary reparation expenditures; it has thus been considered that they continued to be taken. Nevertheless, it is appropriate that this matter be negotiated by the Sanjak Administrative Council and the necessary permission be given, if deemed suitable, for collecting this relief on a permanent basis. Undated.
[8 signatures]

• turc ottoman