The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4281, 15 November 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1876.

A prominent feature of the Counties Act is the manner in which it separates, in point of government, the Counties from the incorporated towns. The subject has been mentioned before ; but the public seems hardly io cotiipi'ehend the fluidity of the line which has been drawn between the two. Such of the inhabitants of Dunedin as do not happen to possess property in the adjacent country will, have no more to do with the affairs of the Counties of Wdikouaiti, Tftieri, or the Peninsula than with the affairs of the WaikatOi Dunedin will be deprived of even the Honors of a County towfl. She ivill stand solus. No County chairman will sit within her boundaries in state; nor will indignant county electors meet in her drill-shed to ventilate their grievances. It is quite an experiment so far as the Colony is concerned, because, although the affairs of the municipalities have been hitherto managed by the Borough Councils, their local autonomy has been hidden by, and to some exent sunk, in the jurisdiction of the Provincial Governments. The authors of the Act have probably had in view the frequent jealousy between town and country members exhibited in the Provincial Councils ; but that arose solely from a real or supposed inequality in the distribution of the public expenditure; certainly not from any radical divergence of interest, and it ought not to be beyond the capacity of our rulers to devise measures by which the municipalities and the counties would be amalgamated for county purposes, with a due regard to the interests of both. Something could, indeed, be said in favor of divorcing a city like Dunedin from the adjoining county or counties ; but surely the inhabitants of Clyde and Milton form, to all intents and purposes, a single community

with the settlers in the neighborhood > and men fitted to occupy the offices of County Councillor or ChftiftheU ate not so plentiful that Wfi can afford to elitniuate these who happen to reside in the boroughs from the number. The Colony seems hardly ripe for the proposed change. HoWOVer, the experiment may possibly succeed; if not it can be stopped after a few months’ trial. The County Chairman has suffered a good deal from the passage of the Bill through the Assembly. Originally, he was to be elected by the votes of the whole of the ratepayers ; now he is to be the mere nominee of the Council, in which he must hold a seat before election to the Chairmanship. It is to the Upper House we owe this change. The Legislative Councillors seem to have been possessed by a horrid fear lest, if the Chairman were permitted to become the elect of the entire body of country ratepayers, each polling one vote only, instead of according to the sliding scale adopted in polling for Councillors, he would degenerate into a democratic sort of personage, assuming vulgar airs of superiority over the unfortunate Councillors representing but one ward apiece; whereas, if he were nominated by the Counoil, he would be more docile, and greater harmouy would prevail at the. Board. This is a tenable ground of argument; but the experience of Municipalities teaches us thatthe ratepayers prefer an elected to a nominated chairman of a Council. Happily, while reduced in rank, the chairman is still permitted to receive a salary, if the Council hires to vote him one ; and we may be sure it will do so whenever the funds are available. Then comes another streak of black. The draft Kill contemplated the Chairman being made a Justice of the Peace, with limited jurisdiction, like that exercised by Mayors who are appointed Justices under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act; but this honor has been remorselessly cut off, and the thousand Justices who now help the Judges and Resident Magistrates to administer the laws of the Colony will not receive the assistance of sixty County Chairmen in the peiformance of their burdensome duties. This deprivation, however, is more than compensated for by the excision from the Bill of the clanse which prohibited the Chairman from holding a seat in either House of Assembly. This is a decidedly wise alteration. Let it be granted 'that a danger will exist of County Chairmen exercising, to some extent, the embarrassing influence formerly wielded by Superintendents in the Assembly, there remains the overwhelming fact that the Colony cannot afford to shut out sixty of its leading men from seats in the Assembly, because it has not got them to spare. And, after all, whatever legislative checks may be applied, logrolling and improper political combinations cannot be prevented taking place in the Assembly so long as our politicians are willing to engage in such transactions. If they can be suppressed at all, it will be done by raising the tone of public opinion. The Act deals carefully with the question of ways and means. It is an Englishman’s birthright to tax himself, and the Act does not infringe upon this important prerogative, although, to some extent, it chastens the exuberant spirits of the ratepayers by limiting the amount of general rates which may be levied in the course of a year to one shilling in the pound on the rateable value, and the separate rates to the same amount. No limit is fixed to the special rates which may be imposed for defraying the interest charges upon loans raised by the County, but as the County can only borrow to the extent of four times the amount of its general rates the special rates will not be burdensome. The subsidies payable by the General Government will be derived half from the Land, and half from the Consolidated Fund, and are secured to the Counties by the Financial Arrangements Act. The County will receive from the Land Fund a contribution equal to one-half of its general rates, or, if it can thereby get more subsidy, a sum equal to one-half of the total sum received by way of general rates by all the Road Boards in the County; but, whichever is taken as a basis of computation, the subsidy is not to exceed the amount derivable from a rate of one shilling in the pound. Practically, therefore, it may be said that the Counties will receive from the Land Fund a contribution of pound for pound upon the amount raised by a one shilling rate. An equal subsidy will be paid to the Road Boards. The Counties will also be entitled to any balance which may be left out of the Land Fund when all the charges imposed upon that fund by law have been defrayed; but in Otago, this year, the balance will, to all appearances, be nil, or so trifling as not to be worth taking into account. The Colonial Treasurer reckoned it, for the six months ending 30th June next, at £1,250, but this estimate rested on the supposition that the revenue would be as large as that of last year. A similar subsidy will be paid out of the Consolidated Fund. Nevertheless, there is a little bitter in the cup. The Colonial Treasurer is empowered to deduct the expenses of bringing the Act into operation out of the first subsidy payable to the Counties, which will also be charged, in the accounts between them and the Government, with the cost of maintaining the hospitals and other charitable institutions within the respective districts. The Financial Arrangements Act makes the -entire cost of these institutions a charge upon the Land Fund and the Consolidated Fund separately, so that tbo Colonial Treasurer is quite safe, whatever the Counties may think of the matter. But since the hospitals are mostly situated in the boroughs, who will decide as to the precise amount to be contributed by the Counties towards their support ?