The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1887. NEW ROAD DISTRICTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1562, 19 May 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1887. NEW ROAD DISTRICTS.

Last night our Wellington correspondent telegraphed that a clause will be added ta the Counties Act Amendment Bill, now before Parliament, dealing with the matter of the constitution of New Road Districts. The section m question provides that where it is desired to constitute any portion of a road district a new district, it will be necessary for two thirds of the ratepayers m the portion desiring to secede to sign a petition praying the County Council to accede to the proposal. The clause m the Road Board's Act of 1882, which at present deals with the subject, has m nearly every quarter been hitherto held to bear an exactly similar meaning, and numbers of new road districts have been constituted In accordance with its supposed previsions. Sut it is to an entirely different effect, and if not amended a recent decision would doubtless have the result m a great number of cases of making it practically inoperative, The clause m question is not couched m the clearest language possible, and if hastily read, ninety-nine persons out of every hundred would come to the conclusion after its perusal that it provided, as its framer doubtless intended it to do, that three fourths of the ratepayers m the district which desired separation from the road district m which it was included should be favorable to the proposal. But a careful study will show that it can also be taken to have another meaning, and that is, that two thirds of the ratepayers m the whoh of the district, part of which might want to set up for itself, should sign a petition m favor of the proposed secession. And this latter view is that adopted by the law officers of the Crown, and the consequence is that as the law now stands, the ratepayers m a portion of a road district, who wished to form a district for themselves would find it very difficult, m the majority of cases perhaps impossible, to obtain what they required. It is to alter this state of affairs that the clause to which we hays before referred is to be added to the Counties Act Amendment Bill now before the House.