SATURDAY, MAY 13, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4122, 13 May 1876, Page 2

SATURDAY, MAY 13, 1876.

The unsavory but important topic of drainage occupies a good deal of space in "The Dunedin Municipal Bill, 1870." There are, first, the clauses authorising a loan of £200,000 for expenditure on sewerage and drainage works, which have already been discussed. These are supplemented by a number of clauses enabling the City Council to construct the works necessary to ensure a perfect system of drainage throughout the City, and for that purpose to enter upon privato lands, if necessary, in order to make branch drains. Clause 246 authorises the Council to carry sewers through private property, but

while it thoughtfully stipulates that as little damage as possible shall be done, it refrains from saying a word about compensation. Why the patriot* ism of the inhabitants should be evoked when the drainage of the City is in question, when any injury caused to their properties by the Council in the execution of its other functions is duly paid for, is a little puzzling. The Council is likewise well armed for the suppression of nuisances, " Inspectors of Nuisances M may be appointed, who will carry a roving commission to pry into the cause of everything disagreeble. A certificate of appointment produced by one of these officers in Court will be sufficient primd Jacie evidence of his appointment, so that it will be easy for an Inspector, when conducting a prosecution, to avoid technical objections to his status. Upon receiving a report from an Inspector that a I nuisance of any kind exists, the Council

will be able to set efficient machinery in motion for its removal. If the owner of the premises fails to cleanse them the Council can do so itself, and make the offender pay the cost; while the remedy, which is evidently a favorite one with the bill-drafter, of charging the land with the debt by registering a memorial against the title, and summarily selling the property afterwards, will be available against defaulters. The difficulty which has heretofore been experienced in dealing with nuisances upon the land of absentees is overcome by making it lawful to serve a notice for the removal of the nuisance by fixing it upon some conspicuous part of the land or buildings, after which the same proceedings can be taken as though the property were inhabited. The provisions relating t© nuisances seem calculated to work effectively, and, while they are rather autocratic in character, the need for prompt action in these cases, when they arise, warrants peremptory powers. Attention may here be appropriately drawn to the provisions concerning private streets, for, while the regulation of such thoroughfares or blind alleys, whichever they may happen to be, falls technically under another heading than that of " JNuisances," yet, if left without strict supervision, these avenues are so apt to degenerate into public nuisances that a Municipal Corporations Bill would lack an essential feature did it omit to place them under the control of the governing body of the borough. The present measure will enable the Council to compel the owners of these streets to keep them properly paved, macadamised, and drained, and to convert private streets into public ones upon the petition of a majority of their inhabitants.

One part of the Bill defines the powers of the Council in reference to water supply, and another deals with the lighting of the City. Both are framed in view of the Council maintaining and extending the works now in its possession, and clauses have been inserted in anticipation of the suburban municipalities asking the City Corporation to supply them with gas and water. The water rates are fined as follows :—r Where the annual value of the property does not exceed £SO, £7 per cent, upon the as sessed annual value ; between .£SO and .£3OO, £6 per cent. ; above L 300,; £5 10s per cent. A two-thirds rate will be levied where the water can be but is not laid on ; while extra charges will be made for baths, <kc, at a price of not exceeding £8 for each tap, which is heavy enough. Gas rates, it is to be hoped, will not be necessary ; but the Council is authorised, in its discretion, to levy an "ordinary gas rate," the maximum amount of which is left for future determination, for defraying the cost of the public lighting of the City, and likewise a " special gas rate " of Is in the £, for meeting the loan charges incurred on the Gasworks ac-

counts. It will be in the power of the new Council to enact bye-laws upon the usual subjects, and to impose a penalty of JE2O for a breach of any of them. This penalty is much too high. The heaviest penalty that can be inflicted under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1867, is £5, and it is quite unusual for municipal corporations anywhere to be clothed with the power of levying heavy penalties for breaches of their I own regulations. A Municipal Council is not a legislative body. Its bye-laws are not supposed to deal with moral offences. They are mere regulations for the preservation of public order and to enable the Council to discharge its functions without hindrance, and a light fine is sufficient punishment for their infraction. If the offence is serious, it becomes the subject for a prosecution under statute. We observe that among the subjects in respect of which bye-laws can be enacted are the proper ventilation of public buildings, the means oi„ ex-

tinguiahing fires therein, and of ingress, and egress to and from the buildings. The Bill, in its 398 clauses and multitudinous schedules, contains many other provisions on various matters which are worth notice; but we cannot stay to comment upon fchem. Altogether the Bill does credit to its drafter, and with sundry amendments can be converted into a useful measure. It betrays a tendency, one or two examples of which have been quoted, to augment .the; Council's powers unduly ;' "but this fault can easily be corrected if our legislators will only spare an hour or two, from those exciting party struggles which are premised in the a&xt «eteion of the

Assembly, for the discussion of the Bill when in committee. Although it is not necessary to make the Bill Complete, it might judicious'y be supplemented with a few permissi/e clauses enabling any of the suburban municipalities, at the option of both parties, to become incorporated with Dunedln; for while the residents in the suburbs have undertaken the duties and responsibilities of local self-government with remarkable pluck and vigor, they may ultimately find it advantageous to join in partnership with their richer i neighbor, on fair and reasonable terms, and unless provision is made now the delay and expense of a special Act would have to be incurred before such an amalgamation could be effected.