When The Ratepayers Rebelled

Press, Issue 31095, 25 June 1966, Page 5

When The Ratepayers Rebelled

(Specially written for “The Press” by R C. LAMB) r fODAY the Christchurch City Council gives “notice of intention to make rates and uniform fees.” A century ago the work of the council was brought to a standstill because of the refusal of some citizens to pay their rates.

The reason for their stand w'as that a leading lawyer, Mr W. H. Wynn-Williams, had raised doubts in the public mind as to the right of the council to levy rates. He gathered about him a body of supporters and in June, 1865, formed the Ratepayers’ Mutual Protection Society which held some of its meetings in the Lyttelton Hotel later the Clarendon.

Power Disputed

It was by an ordinance of the Canterbury Provincial Council that the Christchurch Municipal Council had been set up; and it had held its inaugural meeting in March, 1862. Yet, little more than three years later, before a public meeting convened by the Ratepayers’ Society, Mr Wynn-Williams denied the

This cartoon appeared in a contemporary issue of “Punch in Canterbury.” It is intended to convey what a devastating blow Wynn-Williams and his Ratepayers’ Mutual Protection Society had dealt the council. His opponent in the ring is Isaac Luck, the council’s chairman in 1865.

power of the Provincial Council to create municipal bodies, and declared that such authority belonged only to the Imperial Parliament, and rested in New Zealand with the General Assembly.

Assurance Given

The council, in order to remove all doubts as to its legal standing as a municipal corporation, sent its chairman, Mr Isaac Luck, to Wellington to interview the law officers of the Crown. He returned at the end of August, 1865, fortified in the assurance that the council was a legally constituted body and that it had power to levy rates.

But Mr Wynn-Williams would not be shaken in his rooted belief to the contrary. Adamant in his stand, he refused to pay his rates, and, his objections being overruled in the Magistrate’s Court, in January, 1866, he obtained leave to appeal. Twice was his case brought to the Supreme Court before Mr Justice Gresson; and on each occasion his Honour complained that the case did not state clearly the points of law intended for his decision; and it was sent back to the lower court for amendment.

Dismissals

Other ratepayers, following Mr Wynn-William’s lead, refused to pay their rates. To summon these recalitrants before the local magistrate for their refusal was of no avail, for he could not adjudicate upon such cases until the judgment of the Supreme Court was known. With its rate collection almost at a standstill, and its finances in a precarious state,

the council, in April, 1866, disbanded its working gang, cancelled its lighting contract with the Christchurch Gas, Coal and Coke Company, and dispensed with the services ofits night-soil collector, Mr Joseph Hadfield. At the same time it inserted in the “Lyttelton Times” a notice stating that it had “no funds to carry on the city works” and that it had “resolved to stop expenditure.” Furthermore, the notice pointed out, the Council would not hold itself blameworthy for “any accident that should occur” as a result of its discontinuing the lighting of the street lamps, or for “any other circumstances arising from the suspension of the sanitary regulations.”

No Appeal

When in June, 1866, the case of Wynn-Williams v. the Council came before Mr Justice Gresson for the third

time, he gave leave for it to go before the Court of Appeal. But as there seemed little likelihood of an appeal being successful, Mr WynnWilliams in the same month paid his rates.

Lights On Again

The council, throughout the protracted court hearings, had a very able counsel, Dr. C. J. Foster, for its legal adviser. Before coming to Canterbury in 1864, he had been professor of jurisprudence at the University of London, and was the first to hold that office. His fees for services rendered the City Council from January to June, 1866 amounted to £7O; but he received no payment until July.

In the same month the lights of the city went on again; and in September, Mr Wynn-Williams notified the Council of his decision to abandon the case he had brought against it.