The Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4226, 12 September 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1876.

Should the Counties Bill pass, the Chairman of a County Council will bo an important personage, not quite so illustrious as a Lord-Lieutenant, indeed, but still a distinguished luminary in his own particular sphere. He will be the elected head of the County. He will preside at all meetings of the Council of w; ich ho will be ex officio a member, and exercise thereat, if need be, a casting, in addition to an original vote. He will, it may be presumed, conduct all negotiations on behalf of the Council with the Ministry, which arc likely to he neither few nor unimportant. The Governor may appoint him a Justice of the Peace, but with the unfortunate restriction that he shall not exercise his judicial functions beyond the limits of his own County. Last, but not least, the Council may vote him a salary, payable out of the County funds. There is a little bitter at the bottom of the cup, however. The Bill disqualifies him from holding a seat in either House of Assembly. A general knowledge of human nature, strengthened by practical experience in the Legislature, suggests the idea that uiue-and-thirty County Chairmen occupying seats in the House of Representatives would not be conducive to purity of government. Hence this clause. On the other hand, to exclude County Chairmen from the Assembly would either shut out from Parliament some of its beat members, or prevent competent men from undertaking ttye duties of County Chairmen. Possibly the evil would be felt in both ways; but in any event the public service would suffer. As Sir Julius Vogkl remarked, when moving the second reading of the Bill, “There is a great deal to be said on both sides of the subject,” and the reader can form his own conclusion. The Chairman and Council will be assisted in the administration of the County affairs by a staff of paid officers in the shape of a clerk, a treasurer, a surveyor, and so forth. There are some carefully drawn clauses relating to the keeping of the County account?, based on existing Municipal and Road Board Ordinances; and provision is also made for an annual audit, ft is open to doubt whether equal wisdom has been displayed in conferring the power of appointing auditors upon the Governor. The remarks we recently made in reference to the proper mode of appointing city auditors apply here. The auditors should be elected by the whole body of ratepayers, more especially as the County will have to pay the salaries of these gentlemen. The principal function devolved upon the County Councils is the construction and maintenance of the County roads, bridges, and ferries ; but they have likewise a general authority to construct and maintain “any public works which, in the opinion of the Council, may be necessary or beneficial to the County, ’ including quays, docks, piers, or harbor works of any kind. A power is reserved to the Governor, absolute in its terms, but presumably to be used in cases of emergency only, by proclamation in the 'Gazette ’ to take any County road, bridge, or ferry, out of tht control of the Council, whereupon the Government will take over all receipts and liabilities connected with such works, which then become Colonial undertakings. This power is supplemented by another less palateable by which the Governor is enabled from time to time to “order any County road to be made, maintained, or repaired within such period as he may in any such order determine ; and if the governing body of the County shall refuse or neglect so to make, maintain, or repair any such road, it shall be lawful for the Governor to cause the same to be so made, maintained, or repaired, and the expenses thereof shall be charged against the body corporate so refusing or neglecting as aforesaid, and may be deducted from any subsidies payable under this or any other Act of the General Assembly to such body corporate.” The moral of this clause will doubtless lie in its application. Its object is apparently to give the Government a means of compelling a negligent or recalcitrant Council to keep a main line of communication from one part of the Comity to another which passes through its territory in repair, or of forcing it to make its portion of a new main road, which the obstinacy of a particular council might otherwise render it impossible to complete. Unless carefully handled, however, the clause might entail great hardship upon thinly-settled districts, where ,road making had scarcely begun, and roads of some kind were imperatively needed in many directions to enable the settlers to occupy their farms, while, on the other hand, the County funds were small, owing to the limited amount of rateable property. Districts like these would feel the benefit of another provision of the Bill of a different character, which empowers a County Council to contract with the Minister for Public Works, either on its own account or Conjointly with the neighboring Councils, for the construction of particular works, so that it would thus gain the advantage of the services of a more competent engineering staff than its own funds would enable it to employ. We regard this as a valuable provision, because it does not force Government assistance upon a County, but only enables it to obtain such assistance if it desires. On the goldfields the water races which have been already constructed by the Government will be handed over to the ('ounty Councils free from liabilities, and those bodies will be henct forward entrusted with their management. All the Count}' Councils are empowered to erect ami maintain hospitals and charitable institutions, and to give outdoor relief to poor persona. The Counties Bill leaves it optional with the Councils to undertake these duties or not, as they please, but since the Government subsidy will be granted on the understanding that they do, it will be a case of “Hobson’s choice.” The Councils are likewise empowered to establish public libraries, markets, pounds, and slaughterhouses ; they may levy tolls; and the Governor is authorised to vest in them reserves made for public recreation, the existing reserves being in the meantime vested in the various Waste Land Boards. The part of the Bill which confers these powers contains an extremely unpleasant postscript, declaring that, after the expiration of four years from the first election of its Council, every County shall be liable to contribute such sum as the G enoral Assembly may direct it, towards the maintenance of a police force; while at the close of the following year a similar liability will devolve upon the Council in respect of the cost of primary education, aucl the erection and maintenance of schoolhouses. On the principle that “taxation without representation is tyranny” one might expect to find correlative dau ea giving the Councils a voice in the manage ment of education and of the police; but such clauses are absent. It would, of cour e, Imvo been impossible to put them into the Bill without raising the education question in all its bearings, and the time is not yet jipe for that discussion. The

preceding observations show that considerable powers of administration are bestowed upon tlie County Councils, but their legislative functions are of the lowest order. Instead of the pomp and glory attached to the enactment of “ Ordinances,” the Councils will have to content themselves with the hum ole task of passing bye-laws on such subjects as the regulation of their own proce- d'nss, a?icl the management of public r<.-serves, mar ; hj), v;.ug\ter homes, and (K-un-hi. ihose byolacc? will be- made by special order after having been published seven days beforehand, and will come into operation upon the receipt of a copy, sealed wdh the corporate seal of the County, being acknowledged by the Colonial Secretary, subject, however, to the Governor’s disallowance at any time within six mouths from that date.