THE COUNTY SYSTEM.

Evening Star, Issue 4303, 11 December 1876, Page 4

THE COUNTY SYSTEM.

A public meeting was held on Saturday evening, in Mornington Hall, for the purpose of considering how that district was effected by the recent Acts of Parliament, in reference to local self-government. There were about eighty persons present, and the chair was occupied by Mr H. Law, the Chairman of’ the Mornington Road Board, who explained that the Road Board at their last meeting had invited Mr Stout to attend, for the purpose of making certain explanations to them. The Board thought that it would be satisfactory to the ratepayers to hear what Mr Stout had to say by way of explanation of the present state of affairs, and bow the recent Acts of Parliament affected that district. .Mr Stout said that he was present that night not so much to comment on the political situation as to answer any questions which they might ask as to the provisions of the new Acts passed by the General Assembly in reference to local self-government. He saw from the papers that the people of Roslyn, Mornington, and Caversham were all included in one riding, and given one member out of nine, and that they did not consider themselves properly represented. The Counties Act did not destroy the Road Boards in the Counties unless the people in the Road Board districts wished it; so the Mornington Road Board would be able to <*o on in the future as in the past, and obtain fts subsidy of £ for £, but there might be no subsidies next year. If there would be any surplus from the Laud Fund no doubt it would be divided among thp Counties according to their size. As far as Otago was concerned, there would be no surplus next year, and the Government would not be able to give £ for £ from that source. Mornington would ultimately have to share in making the roads throughout the

County, and the question the ratepayers had to determine was whether they would remain with the Road Board or go in for a municipality. He would not give any advice on this point, as it was a matter for the people to settle for themselves. For the next two or three years there might not be a County rate, for if the laud fund he sufficient, it might serve to keep the main roads in order without having to levy such rate. In .some places it would not be necessary, but he did not think that this oould be in regard to Mornington. The result of a County rate would be that the people of Mornington would have to pay for the maintenance of the roads outside their own district. In answer to questions, Mr Stout said even if the County Council imposed no rate there would be a subsidy of L2. Mornington was no doubt large enough to be constituted a municipality, and so far as the working of a Road Board and municipality was concerned, he did not think that there should be any difference in the cost, unless the latter choose to give its officers a higher

salary than the former, the Morniugtou people wished to have their district proclaimed a municipality, they could petition for it. They should determine this matter at once, because the County might borrow money, and then if they separated, they would have to take upon themselves a portion of the debt of the County. It was the intention of the Act that there should be no County rate. The County Councils would have full power to spend the money where they pleased. &o far as the Hoad Hoards were concerned, they were not interfered with, except the majority of the ratepayers wished it. Toe Road Board rates and the subsidy of pound for pound would -be left intact, but the Comity Council could spend the County funds where it pleased. The Road Board

Ordinance of 1871 was not touched. The way in which Mornington could be annexed to Dunedin would be this : They would have to ask the Dunedin City Council to come under the new City Corporations Act by adopting it. If it consented to do that, then the Governor could extend the boundaries of Dunedin so as to include Morniin/ton. His opinion was that Otago should nave been one Count}', with its reprosenta tives meeting once a-year to distribute any laud fund that there might be. When that was lost, he urged that it was wrong to divorce the towns from the Counties. He did not know whether South Dunedni aud St. Kilda were good precedents for them to go by. The ratepayers were the best judges, and if these districts had incompetent men presiding over their affairs, he hoped that Mornington would set them an example. He believed in the doctrine of allowing the people of such districts to deckle for themselves. Mr Jas. An nuKsox.in addressing the meeting, gave au unqualified denial to the state-

ment of the Commissioner of Customs that the desire of the Roslyn people was to get the whole of the rate and spend it in that district. He had come to the conclusion that if the Government of the day was strong enough to carry the Abolition. Act against the wishes of the people of Otago, and if its .members were alive to the injustice and inconsistency of joining suburban districts to country districts, they must have had some impure motive in view in imposing on the Roslyn district this great injustice. The Commissioner of Customs had asked what they could do without the country districts? and stated that the suburban districts benefited by those of the country. That proposition was fair enough to a certain extent, but if it were right, it should go further, and Dunedin should be annexed to the County.—(Hear, hear.) Mornington was only a suburban district, and did not reap the advantages of being annexed to the County. He complained that Mr Reid was kept fully informed of what was going on, while Mr Burns, the member for the district, had never been communicated with. He had told Mr Reid that the Roslyn district’s objections would cease if it were conceded that the rates levied and collected in a riding should be spent in that riding; hut that gentleman made reply that that arrangement would never suit the Taieri. He moved—

That a committee, consisting of Messrs Law (convener), Laing, G. Matthews, W. H. Reynolds, W. Barr, Harly, J. Mitchell, \Vm. Cooper, and the members of the Mornington Road Board, be appointed for the purpose of obtaining information as to how the Mornington district is effected by the Counties Act, and to report thereon, togt ther with suggestions as to the most expedient course to be adopted in the interest of the ratepayers. The Chairman said that, from Mr B tout’s explanation, they gathered that the most important effect on the district of being ! formed into a municipality would be that it would isolate it from the rest of the County. Mornington, as a portion of the County, would possess but 1 27th part of the representation, and, consequently, would have but little to say in regard to what rates should be levied, or where they should be spent. He failed to see that they had much in common with County districts, and they did not want the interference of the Taieri members, who did not understand their wants. He believed that they would have no resource but to form themselves into a municipality, and he saw no reason why its machinery should be more expensive than that of the present Road Board. The motion was carried, and the proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to Mr Stout and the Chairman. Pursuant to advertisement several of the electors of Raveusborne and Rothesay met at the Schoolhouse, on Friday evening, to hear Mr Smythies’ lecture upon the new Cousti } tution. Mr Hartley having been called to* the chair, Mr SmyUiies said that he had come there that evening because a notice had appeared in the papers calling upon the electors to meet at the North-east Valley Schoolhouse on Monday first to consult upon the election of their representative at the County Council, and he thought the inhabitants would like to be made acquainted with the new Constitution before that meeting. He had called the meeting at Robhesay° because it was central of the riding and because it was the place in which his own interests lay. He then addressed the meeting in explanation of the various Acts regulating the County system—namely, the Abolition Act, the Counties Act, the Public Works Act, the Financial Arrangements Act, the Eating Act, and the Local Elections Act—from which an account of the system now coming into force for the management of public affairs. He pointed out the contradictions and other mistakes in the several Acts, which render them very difficult to understand or ca; ry into effect. He alluded j to the circumstance of the Abolition Act, by | which certain financial arrangements were j made, coming into force at the close of the . session, and repealed by the Financial : Arrangements Act, which comes into force upon the Ist of January; thus leaving finaaj Cl; d arrangements in force for a few weeks i which were not intended to be in force at a’l, ; and so giving certain funds to the Road j Boards for that period, the amount of which j it will be difficult to ascertain or to collect. I ■ The County Council are empowered during ; , the first three months to elect whether or , no R wih take upon itself the working of : the Act. If declined, the result will I e that the Council must still be ehcfccd and n e.it once every year ; but there will be no place :to meet in. There must be a clerk who is to be always ready to receive notices, sum- 1 mouses, &c. ; but without pay or office. There must be a minute book open to inspection by the ratepayers ; but no place to keep it in. There must be a seal; but no one to keeji it, and so on. But he said that probably they would not be. able to pass the resolution, as certain mistakes in the Act j would make it impracticable, or at least im- : politic; and if they had their choice, the | good sense of the Council would haadly a 1 w 1 them to refuse to accept the rates imposed upon them by the Act for the good of the community. All persons rated within the district are entitled to be upon the roll The votes are upon a scale. All persons rated for property valued— Under £SO, 1 vote £SO and under £IOO, 2 votes £IOO and under £l5O, 3 votes £l5O and under £350, 4 votes £350 and upwards, 5 votes. There are to be three executive bodies the County Council, the Road Boards, and the Municipal Councils. The Road Boards are placed very much under the control of the County Council, but the Municipal Councils act independently. There are three classes

oi roads : Government roads, County roads and District roads. The District roads are under the care of the Road Boards : the County roads of the County Council : and the Government roads of the General Government. The County fund consists of moneys derived from licenses, penalties, tolls, rents, rates, and subsidies from land fund, of 10s in the pound collected by rates, and for five yeaus, 10s in the pound from the consolidated fund, subject to certain deductions. The residue of laud fund, after payment of interest aud sinking fund on Provincial debts, cost of surveys aud management of land, primary education, moneys voted by Legislature for hospitals museums, and charitable institutions, and interest on cost of construction of railways for tight years to be divided among the counties in the following proportions • 3-sths in proportion to the area of each County and 2-Sths in proport im of subsidies paid to the County. Mr Smythies concluded his address by saying that he had offered ins services to the electors of the to represent them iu the Council, because he nad a considerable interest to be protected, Hq han ample time to look after it and 1m interest was their’s. At the same time, it anyone else better qualified, and who would pledge himself to attend the meetings of the Council, could be induced to stand, lie would gladly resign in his favor • ami he expressed a hope that the electors would attend on Monday [this] evening and assist in the deliberations of the meeting. .Aftei a vote of thanks to Mr Smythies winch was most cordially agreed to, and to the Chairman, the meeting separated.