The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1895. LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 70, 19 September 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1895. LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

« | In a recent issue we mentioned incidentally thafc in one part of the colony afc | least the Insurance Companies had promised to make a reduction in their charges for fire risks. Whether the mauagers of these companies were influenced in any way by clause 519 in the proposed Local Government Bill we are of course unable to conjecture, but it is safe to assume that they were not ignorant of its existence. The Bill proposes that any County or Borough Council may undertake, on the part of the ratepayers, the insurance against fire of all buildings within the district, with certain exceptions— such as those in which combustible or dangerons materials are stored— provided always^ that before doing so every Council shall have adopted the clause by special order in that behalf, and such special order shall •not be made unless the proposal has been submitted to and approved by the ratepayer* aa in the case of a special loan, all the provisions whereof shall apply to such proposal.. After passing the special order the lands and *bsufd|ngs within the district are to be valued, assigning the rateable valng to each separately, and a rate-book prepared so as ! to set forth distinctly the rateable valne > of buildings as distinguished from the valne of the land on which they are erected* Tbe Council shall then strike

a rate of three farthings in the pound on the rateable value of all buildings, i except those which are especially ex- ( emptied from insurance. The rate is to 1 be paid into a separate acconnt which will be charged with all payments made , under the Act. Any Council under- j taking fire insurance shall establish and maintain an efficient Fire Brigade, and the 1 cost thereof shall be defrayed out of the •] Fire Insurance Account Whenever, by , reason of frequency of fires, the funds to satisfy claims are insufficient, an Extraordinary Rate may be struck sufficient to liquidate all claims made upon the acconnt, and the Council may spread such Extraordinary Rate over any period not exceeding three years, and may borrow money on the security of such Bate, but only to satisfy such claims for fire insurances for which such rate has been levied. Councils undertaking fire insurances may effect re-insurances. It is hardly necessary to comment on this, because the advantages aud disadvantages are so patent to all. The manifest advantages are that insurances would cost insurers much less than they do at present, but the disadvantages lie chiefly in the power which is given in the Act for persons who may not be property owners, but merely birds of passage, to vote as ratepayers on a question which imposes no liability on them, but a heavy one on those who are the owners of houses and lands.