The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4120, 11 May 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1876.

Should the Dunediii Municipal Bill, 1876, be passed by the General Assembly, the present Corporation of Dunedin will be dissolved, and the new Corporation come into existence immediately upon a Mayor and Councillors being elected to manage its affairs. That event is fixed for the third Monday in January, 1877, so that the Mayor elected next July will have but a short career of glory before him. In subsequent years, however, the mayoral election will take place on the second Monday in January, the chosen candidate assuming ofiiGe a week afterwards; but the election for Councillors will always be held on the third Monday in January, while the whole of the Councillors will retire annually ; a radical change being thus made in the present system of retirement. In place of four, the City will be divided into six wards, termed respectively South, High, Middle, Bell, Leitli, and North Ward, each sending two representatives to the City Council. This distribution of Councillors is a decided improvement

upon the existing plan, and the mu Itiplication of wards will tend to ser jure a fair share of expenditure to o very part of the City. Besides the Mayor and Councillors, the ratepayer wiM be invited to elect, annually, two auc litors and two assessors, the latter of w honi, with the Mayor, will fornn a Revision Court for the correction of the citizens' lists. The system of voting by ballot is, of course, retained, and it is proposed that the voting should be pro rata, according to the assessment : in other words, an inhabitant who pays rates upon an assessment of L 75 a year will exercise one vote; if he is rated upon an assessment of any sum between L 75 and Ll5O, two votes will be accorded to him; while, should he pay taxes upon any greater amount than Ll5O, he will enjoy three votes, which is the maximum. The Bill, however, though quite clear as to the right to cumulative votes at elections of Mayor, assessors, and auditors, is slightly ambiguous in regard to elections of Councillors, though'wo apprehend the privilege is intended to embrace all these cases. There is a useful provision, borrowed from a Victorian practice, by which a | candidate for the office of Mayor or Councillor is required to deposit a sum of L2O as a condition precedent to his nomination, to be forfeited should he faiHo poll 20 votes. The prohibition against holding election meetings in public-houses is likewise well grounded, but what can be urged in favor of a clause declaring that there shall be only one polling booth for the whole city at the election of the Mayor, the assessors, and the auditors, respectively? Ths alteration in the constitution of the Council will probably be accompanied by a considerable change in the departmental staff of the Corporation of a character to necessitate a material increase in the cost of the staff. A City Treasurer is an officer who must needs be paid a substantial salary in any case j and should the post be given to Mr Massey, as it has been suggested should be done, that gentleman, looking at his long service, could hardly be expected to accept a smaller salary than he is now getting; and if he were succeeded in the Town Clerkship by a solicitor, it is certain that the services of a professional man could not beobtaiued without proper remuneration. However, the Bill leaves it optional with the Council to separate the two offices of City Treasurer and Town Clerk, or to combine them; and it will therefore be time enough to discuss the question when their division is fairly brought on the board. That part of the Bill which relates to the municipal reserves is of high importance, and has received a praiseworthy amount of care from the drafter. It vests the fee simple of the whole of the reserves in the Corporation, to be held by it in trust for the benefit of the citizens of Dunedin for the several purposes for which the reserves were originally set apart. No power to alienate is given, but leases for twentyone years of those reserves which have been devoted to purposes of " public utility " can be granted. The recreation reserves, including the Town Belt, are more strictly tied up. The twentieth clause of the Bill is worth noting : "It shall be lawful for the Council to manage and improve all and singular the lands described in the said fifth schedule in such manner as to the Baid Council shall seem fit, but so that the inhabitants of the said City may and shall have and enjoy the free and uninterrupted use of such lands and every part thereof as public pleasure gronndsfor places of public recreation; and it shall also be lawful for the Council from time to time, in the name and on behalf of the said Corporation to lease the whole or any part or parts of the said lands described in the said fifth schedule, from year to year, or for any shorter term, for the purpose of grazing sheep, but for no longer term, and for no other purpose whatsoever than aforesaid : Provided that no such lease shall in any manner whatsoever restrict or interfere with the full and free enjoyment of the said lands, or any part thereof by the citizens and inhabitants of the said City as public pleasure grounds, or places of public recreation." In the face of this clause, with the accompanying context, neither fever hospitals, nor any buildings of a similar character, could legally be erected by the City Council on the Town Belt. The recreation reserves must be sti'ictly applied to their rightful use, and the Act, so long as it remained unrepealed, while enabling the Council to obtain a revenue from the other reserves, would effectually bar it from making away with them in a fit of extravagance, or, in humble imitation of Mr Reid, for the purpose of supplying an unpleasant deficit in the civic exchequer.