Lord Sumner:-

The respondents own a manufactory in Halifax, Nova Scotia, situated in four streets. In 1908, 1910, and 1911 the city of Halifax made public sewers in these streets under the city charter, and under its 600th section required the respondents, as owners of land and buildings fronting the sewers, to pay $ 2337-34 towards the costs of their construction. If the respondents are in the position of an ordinary rate-payer, that sum is due and constitutes a lien on their lands under Section 603 of the charter. The question is, in the words of paragraph 15 of the case stated for the opinion of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, "does the exemption claimed by the defendant apply in respect to the sewers," or, put in another form, is this charge "taxation on the company's buildings . . . and on the land on which its buildings used for manufacturing purposes are situated ?"

The Silliker Car Company was incorporated in 1907. The Nova Scotia Car Works, Limited, now respondents, are assignees of its manufactory and entitled to its rights and exemptions. For present purposes no distinction need be drawn between them. Both alike may be referred to as "the company." The city of Halifax has power, under Section 344 14 App. Cas. 660, of its charter, "when any company proposes to purchase any land or erect any building in the city of Halifax for the purpose of establishing any manufacturing industry," to "wholly or in part exempt the land and buildings . . . of such company from taxation for the general purposes of the city other than water rates for a period not to exceed ten years from the establishment of such industry." The company did propose to purchase land and erect buildings, but the city of Halifax was minded to do more than merely to apply this section, and an agreement was negotiated between the city and the company, which, in the form of a schedule to a special Act, received legislative sanction on 25th April, 1907. Under this agreement and the Act the city was to lend the company $ 125,000, to grant it an exemption from taxation for ten years, and to limit the yearly assessable value of its property during the second ten years to an agreed sum. As the consideration for this assistance the company agreed to establish a manufactory in Halifax, and this has been done.

The actual terms of the exemption thus specially enacted are as follows :

"The city will grant the company a total exemption from taxation for ten years on its buildings, plant and stock, and on the land on which its buildings used for manufacturing purposes are situated . . . At the expiry of the ten years the city agrees that the total yearly value for assessment on such lands, buildings, plant and stock shall, for a further period of ten years, not exceed fifty thousand dollars, the foregoing exemption not to apply to the ordinary water rate for fire protection, nor to the rate for water used by the Company, which shall he charged at the minimum rate charged on other manufacturing concerns."

So far as a simple question of interpretation is affected by presumptions at all, their Lordships are of opinion that this clause should be construed favourably to the respondents. They have performed the whole consideration on their side by establishing their works, and the consideration moving to them has been earned and ought not to be thereafter restricted. The matter is one of bargain and of mutual advantage; it is not a case of one citizen seeking to escape from his share of common burthens and so increasing pro tanto the burthen on the others. In the case of La Cite de Montreal v. Les Ecclesiastiquec du Seminaire de S. Sulpice de Montreal (1) Lord Watson, speaking of an exemption from "municipal and school taxes," or "cotisations municipales et scolaires," says of a district rate for drainage improvements, "prima facie their Lordships see no reason to suppose that rates levied for improvements of that kind are not Municipal taxes." It will be observed that this was a