The Globe. THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1878.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1297, 16 May 1878, Page 2

The Globe. THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1878.

In the course of the special meeting of the City Council on Tuesday a very important point, and one affecting the ratepayers in no small degree, was brought forward. By the legislation of the General Assembly the fees payable for publicans’ licenses, dog tax, and the inspection of weights and measures are made the property of the borough in which they arise and are paid into its funds. Bat the discussion of Tuesday last makes us aware of what is somewhat of an anomaly, and one which it is strange has not been discovered before. It appears that whilst the fees payable for the licenses referred to are the property of the borough, yet the fines inflicted for instance in cases of nonregistration of dogs are not. These together with the fines for breaking the licensing laws or the Act relating to weights and measures, go into the Colonial Treasury, Why this should be so does not appear very clear. It does seem strange that one body should receive the license fees, and the other the fines inflicted on the holders of such license for contravention of the law under which it was granted. We confess wo are unable to see any reason at all why this anomaly should exist. As was pointed out by one of the members of the City Council, supposing one half of the residents owning dogs neglected to register them, say for six months, or even a longer term, the Council would bo deprived of half their entire revenue from this source. But when this was recovered they would have no share in the penalty inflicted, which would be appropriated by the Government, although the city funds had been the sufferer by the diminution of the amount paid as fees. Further than this the city has to disburse from its revenue for the provision of collars, receipt forms, and other items of expenditure connected with the collection of the dog tax. This if must be remembered is done on an estimate that a certain number of persons will require to register dogs. Therefore, if as we have pointed out a considerable per centage of these evade the law, the expenditure thus caused remains without being recouped. It surely therefore would be right that the fines imposed as a penalty for non-registration should find their way into the borough coffers—that is as regards one portion of the fines. Now with respect to the others—and first as to the Inspector of Weights and Measures. There can be no doubt that, as suggested, the best course would be to place this entirely under the supervision of the Council, making it a department of the city. It is essentially local, and can be far more economically and efficiently worked by a local body than by the Government at Wellington. It is one of those things which are so purely a matter of local concern as to render it inadvisable for a central Government to interfere, besides which it comes fairly within the scope of Municipal supervision. This being so the fees and fines should of course be both paid into the borough funds, instead of, as at present, only the fees. With respect to the remaining item, the fines arising from breaches of the Licensing Ordinance, at first sight it would appear that the claims of the city to these were very slight indeed. But, on considering the matter, it will be seen that they are not so slight as might be thought. The Legislature, in graining to boroughs the fees, (ie„ from these various licenses, had in view the idea of their being a soft fif endowment —or rather a substitution in lieu of endowment. Now, with the exception of Christchurch, the boroughs of the colony have taken fair care of themnejycs in the matter of endowment, and this concession on the part of the Legislature, therefore, was not of such vital importance to them as it was to Christchurch. Therefore, wo have a special claim on the Government. Up to the present the matter has never been referred to, hence it is impossible to say what action the

Government will take; but certainly the Council should lose no time in bringing the matter before them, putting in strong terms the especial claims of Christchurch to these fines, in the absence of any endowment such as is possessed by many other boroughs of the colony. If the Council find the Government indisposed to amend the law in the direction required by them, other stops must bo taken. At any rate, whatever may bo the result, the matter should not be allowed to rest quietly, without an effort being made to secure for the city what undoubtedly should belong to it.