The Counties Act Amendment Bill.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 4 August 1891, Page 2

The Counties Act Amendment Bill.

Wb, have already pointed ,oui thai the clause in the -Counties Act Amendment Bill; placing the voting power in the i hands of the i stnaill ratepayers, by 'declaring that 1 'every County elector shall be entitled to exercise not more than one vote in each riding in which he is enrolled, is a most unjust measure to those who pay the largest rates. In examining the Bill we notice that the alterations proposed all tend to throw every power into the small voter s

hands. Take clause 2, providing for the constitution of new road districts, the alteiation appears to make it mandatory on the County Council to act on a petition presented if the two-thirds of the ratepayers in a portion of a road district have signed the petition. The Council are not in any way to judge of the fairness pf such a proposal. Country settlers can call to hiincL wta, owing" to the nature of tile Country, a number of selfish men could easily cut themselves off, by the formation of a new road district, and thus leave newer disoricts to find the whole cost of opening up the county, though the main thoroughfares are as necessary to them as to the others. If this is not the reading of the alteration we do not see where any was needed under the laws already existing. County Councils, under " The Public Works Act 1882," had power to make county roads throughout the county, exce.pt within the limits of a Borough, and could declare any district road within the county to be a county road. The new Bill, clause 6 permits the ratepayers to petition against, any such order. The ratepayers have had a voice in the election of their councillors, yet each act of theirs is to be subjected to a poll of their constituents. This is placing a member in a very ridiculous position and a parallel to it would be that every Bill presented to Parliament should, before the third reading, be voted upon by the electors pf the oolonj. This nursing of the ratepayer . i§ further exhibited in olause p of the Bill, which, after repealing the clause 45 of the- Counties Act, dealing with the re-adjustment of representation, enacts that if the ratepayers feel themselves aggrieved by any suoh re-adjustment when made, they may run to their Pa, that- is the Governor, and he may amend what has been done as he shall think fit ! In the proposed amendments to the clause providing when resolutions for special loans are to be deemed carried, a marked alteration in favour of the small ratepayer is notioeable. The great temptation that a loan offers to small ratepayers hr-s always, till now, been admitted. These Bmall ratepayers have little to risk and much to gain in raising a loan, as the work of road formation would give them employment, and thus ease the burden of any extra rate to be paid. It has then been been provided that the voice of the ratepayers in favour of any loan should be unanimous, of course not actually, but practically so, as onethird of the rates exercisable had to be recorded. To those who have had the task of carrying a loan, it has been very evident the trouble that has to be taken to secure even so much. It has now been proposed that- if twice the, number of votes given for the proposal is not less than three times the number of votes given against the proposal, the poll shall be carried. This simplifies matters very much, and with one man one vote, very expensively to those who hold two or three hundred acres. There appears to have been a consciousness on the part of the Minister answerable for this Bill, that the innovations he proposed woulddrive county councillors tp destruction, or cause them to resign in disgust, as he has tramed clause 41 to provide that if a !; county council resign in a body, or the council makes no provision to supply any vacancies, the corporation of the county shall not be thereby dissolved. Admirable Minister I this one " happy thought " may be that which will still secure the victim whilst he is shorn. We have shown enough to maise it clear that the proposed Bill is not likely to be of much advantage to the average farmer, and we think our county councils should discuss the Bill, and forward resolutions to the members for the districts, or otherwise the Minister will assert that, the Bill has been before the country for some weeks, and not a protest has been received.