The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1877.

Kumara Times, Issue 309, 20 September 1877, Page 2

The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1877.

The reply given by the Government to a question as to the legality of the members of County Councils voting themselves payment, either as salary or fcr travelling expenses, will be taken by those who give the matter a thought as an indication of a serious defect in the Counties Act. It appears to have been taken for granted, both in the "Westland and Grey Councils, that a reasonable amount of compensation was to be expected by those who are put to heavy expense in performing the duties devolving upon them at the desire of their constituents. So completely has this been the case, that though both Councils almost immediately upon their adopting the whole Act, voted a honorarium to their members, the fact never excited comment iu the Press of either Hokitika or Greymouth. This is the more note- ' worthy, perhaps, because there was a difference of 50 per cent, in the amounts voted in the respective Councils. In Greymouth, we believe, the honorarium was fixed at £1 per diem, while in Hokitika it was thirty shillings. It is not necessary here to give any opinion ns to the reasonableness of either amount, we shall refer to that presently ; the fact, which we have to deal with just now, is that neither amount was legally appropriated. The Act, while providing that the chairman may be voted a salary, makes no provision for charging the County with any expense on account of the members. The effect of this omission, in a large County where travelling is both inconvenient and expensive, as is the case in the "West Coast Counties, where there are no railways worth mentioning, will be that the candidates for seats in the Council will eventually be to be found only in those towns in which the Councils meet. One of the objects, to accomplish which the Counties Act was supposed to have been passed, was to ensure that each district in the County should be as well-cared for as possible by being represented in the County Council by a person thoroughly conversant with its requirements. Residents in the County town cannot be thus thoroughly acquainted with the wants of the out-lying districts, and could not become no even by an occasional excursion to visit them. The great advantage of having local representatives is that they are constantly j brought into contact with their conj stituents, with whom they have a common interest. Any legislation which has a tendency to diffuse representation has found general acceptance in the Colonies, at least of late years, and, contrariwise, legislation tending to centralization has been deprecated. As to the reasonableness of the amount of j the honorarium voted we will I take that of the Westland members, \ and state in as few words as we can the data on which judgment can be formed. During the past six months the! Council has met about thirty times, and the members, as a rule, have been seldom absent. This will give an average of five sittings per month. These, have been for the most part on consecutive, or nearly consecutive, days in each month. The fees for these attendances would entit'e each member to receive ,£ls. There are seven members ; their aggiogate fees would therefore amount to about £3OO for the half-year. This is, of course, irrespective of the chairman's salary of £2OO. We do not know whether or not the chairman draws the honorarium in addition to his salary, but we suppose that he does not. This amount of £6OO a-year, given to the members as compensation for travelling expenses, seems very large; yet it has not been sufficient to induce all those who were

first elected to retain their seats. Two have resigned; and though one of these assigned ill-health as a reason for his retiring, the other, if we remember aright, stated that fhe could not afford to retain the position. If this fact goes to show that the amount of honorarium is not unreasonable, we may on the other hand remind our readers that no such charge was originally contemplated by at least one member of the Council. When moviug, " That the whole of the Counties Act be brought into force in "Westland," Mr Seddon contradicted the extravagance displayed by the Road Boards with the economical working which was about to characterize the Council. He proposed £2OO a-year each for chairman, secretary, engineer, and road overseer, and summed up Ms remarks with the following words:—"Now the total amount it would take to expend £15,000 to £20,000 would be about £1,000." As we pointed out last night, the administrative expenses of the Council have already, before the expiration of the first six months, exceeded Mr Seddon's estimate for the whole year. His opinions, however, seem to have been rapidly modified, as we find no mention in the report of the proceedings on the following day, of his opposing the honorarium, which involves an expense of £6OO per annum. The question now arises: What will the members of the County Councils, who have been receiving fees, do? Will they at once return what they have received, or will they wait till action is taken against them by the authorities, or by some indignant ratepayer ? Will their refunding the money save them from legal proceedings? Their present position is by no means free from perplexity. It is a pity that when they were consulting their legal adviser as to their refunding the licence fees paid in excess by some of the Kumara publicans, they did not obtain from him an opinion as to the legal aspect of the honorarium question.