THE Mount Ida Chronicle SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1877.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 411, 10 February 1877, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1877.

Centkalilstic Government is after all an easy matter. Mr. Eeid and Mr. Bowen are able to perform all the now recognised functions of Government at Wellington without assistance. It is true that not much is being done. That, however, is the policy of the day. It is wished to develop the governing faculties of a.people. It would be unwise iti the extreme to check this young growth, if developing, by any foolish attempt to govern for the people. In the abstract this is delightful. Erom a local view it is ! not so refreshing. The plain truth is that everything that requires prompt, attention from political heads is being unscrupulously neglected. The great rulers of the people are solely occupied with their own affairs, and by endeavoring to find ways and means to sufficiently complete their measures anent education and land administration for next session, in order to retain office another year. After that, sufficient unto the day is. the evil thereof.

In the meanwhile an appearance is kept up by the appointment of individuals calling themselves Executive officers for the Provincial districts. It does not trouble our easy going Ministers for a moment that these officers are unknown to the lawi Th at indeed their appointment is a direct violation of the Provincial Appropriations Extension Act. That Act gave the Governor power to carry on the existing public services in any Provincial district up to the Slst December last, but no longer. It may be said that the services now being carried on by these Executive officers are not Provincial services. If not, where is the authority for their appointment ? It seems a burlesque upon responsible Government if the Executive can diyest itself of its functions and delegate them to any nominee it chooses. Eor instance Mr. Bunny, the Executive officer for "Wellington, is not as yet in the Government. ..

Of course, as nothing is being : done, this playing with the law does not really matter, in the meantime every man does that which seems right to himself and waits, growing wiser, while watching the development of the County system. Great discoveries are being made. Yincent County lias discovered that its revenue will' be £IO,OOO. Poor credulous Yincent County ! Lake County, nearer to the truth, bns at last understood that gold revenue is not to be subsidised, and that depasturing fees and mining lease rents are land fund and not County revenue ; also, that striking a rate in thinly-populated districts would not pay. Yincent, too, will find out similar truths soon enough. "Wisely perhaps they banquet and are merry, undisturbed. by foolish realisations in advance of what is to bo. In Maniototo nothing is being done. The roads are abandoned to their fate—the flood rains of this week alone doing many hundred pounds' worth of damage. There is one comfort, that in this

County no lavish expenditure on salariea is as yet incurred. Taieri County Council is as yet undecided, and Waikouaiti is doing little or nothing except that the Councillors watch one another to see that no points are worked in favor of individual interests. In JJunedin the ratepayers are exercised as to their exact position as voting burgesses, none seeming to know who have votes or who have . not. All through the country the turmoil is growing and spreading—our Ministers at Wellington and Auckland taking their ease, or plotting for the future. . It would be cruel and foolish to blame them. We do not. - Their, action is the legitimate outcome of Conservative Centralism, which the people have, through their representatives, elected to worship. There are signs abundant that at the very outset there has been found a place for repentance.

Ajt interesting case occurred in the ITase- . by R.M. Court on Friday last affecting the privileges of Municipal Councils constituted under the Otago Municipal Ordinance of 1865. Two of the Councillors, representing the minority in the Council, took action in the R.M. Court against the Mayor, who was the head of the majority. I The one acted as informant, the other as the solicitor for the informant. It appears a Council meeting was held on the 16th. November. From that date to the j.Bth of December, although two meetings were called, the Mayor did not attend, and at one only did three Councillors attend. They appointed a Chairman, but ciid not otherwise transact business, it having been always held that it required more than three to form a quorum. This apparently was admitted by the informant and his counsel, as they both signed a letter to the Mayor, in their capacity as Councillors, requesting him to call a special meeting, to consider the business which lapsed at the meeting of three in question for want of a quorum. By this letter, under their, own hand, it was practically admitted that no meeting had been held between the 17th of November and the 18th of December. The information in the case was that between the dates above-named the Mayor had been absent from meetings of the Council without leave. The informant, advised by his solicitor, now set up in Court that the meeting which they had both as Councillors repudiated under their own hands was a meeting, three being a quorum. This the Court sustained. It is right to state that the letter was not put in as evidence, neither was it proved, as it could have been; but the Mayor had no legal assistance in his defence. The defence set up was, first, that. the Court had no jurisdiction; and, secondly, 'that the Mayor was present at a meeting of the Finance Committee, which was a meeting within the meaning of the Ordinance. The point of interest was the question of the jurisdiction of the Com*t ; The Municipal Act of 1887 placed jurisdiction in such cases solely in the hands of the Supreme Court. The Act of last session, which repeals the Act of 1867, places it in the R.M. Court, by express enactment. This is, it will be seen, an innovation on ail previous practice. The Municipalities in Otago are not, however, under the Colonial Act till proclaimed so, and the practices established by it do not apply, except as a colateral guide. The Ordinance is very clear that, upon the Mayor's absence for the time specified, the Council shall forthwith declare the forfeiture, and the office shall thereupon become vacant. As socn as the vacancy occurs the penalty of £SO is incurred, and can be remitted—or, if not remitted, can be recovered summarily; but it is not easy to see how the penalty can be recovered in such a case until the vacancy is declared. The vacancy, according to the Ordinance, follows immediately on the declaration of the Council, not before it. Upon this point it was argued for the defence that it did not matter whether it is competent for the R.M. Court to direct the declaration of the Council, by deciding upon the forfeiture of office, cr not, as the penalty could not be recovered previous to the Council's declaration—that is, if the Ordinance stands alone. The Otago Councils have always, so far as we kaow, considered themselves the judges of their privileges in this matter, which has not arisen in quite a similar way, but has sometimes cropped up in cases of Councillors beoming insolvent, or filing a deed of arrangement. The decision in the case is not in accordance with this view, and for that reason we draw attention to it, as the popular idea appears to be incorrect. It must be borne in mind, however, that the case was not argued, except by the one side, and the argument on that side was, in a great measure, assertion, and not law. Our Resident Magistrates upon the Goldfields are placed in a most unfair position, often having to decide cases of great intricacy, with little or no assistance from the bar. The Council, at their meeting on Monday night, did not accept the decision as final, but have passed a resolution, with the consent of the Mayor, declaring the scat vacant, so far as they lawfully can, for the sake of preventing further litigation. The Council have the potver, under the Ordinance, of remitting the penalty. , If they now do so they will be reversing the decision of the Court. We do not for a moment say that the decision is erroneous, but it is sufficiently doubtful to be of great interest. Whether the Finance Committee is a meeting of Council within the meaning of the Ordinance is less open to argument. The three standing Committees certainly possess the delegated powers of the Council, and the Ordinance does not recognise any difference between Council meetings and Committee meetings. According to the ruling of the Court, that three Councillors constitute a quorum, each Committee also represents a quorum of Councillors. Apart lrom the legal question, which alone the Court had to deal with, the case was a very discreditable one, and commenced without any object, except to plunge the ratepayers into expense. Crs. George and Rowlatt were elected to their positions to save such expenses, not to incur them.- The whole case savors of petty persecution, which should be repugnant to every one. Action in a law Court would have been justified if the late Mayor were really disqualified, and the majority refused, at the instance of the minority, to declare the seat vacant. The Court to compel a Corporation to do its duty could not, in such a case, be the R.M. Court. The action taken—one of the Councillors acting as solicitor, and

taking the professional fees out of the ratepayers pockets, for there is no doubt the cost will be refunded—is, as far as we know, unprecedented. It is no excuse to say, as has been said, that these fees were paid into a common fund for the prosecution of the Mayor. Such an excuse only shows more plainly the nature of the attack, which, so far, has been successful.

We wish to make a suggestion to the Municipal .Council of JSaseby, which we hope will be of use to them. Briefly, it is to enquire into the items of Goldfields revenue accruing in the borough now, or which have so accrued since the commencement of the year. It is known that the Groldfield revenue accruing within any County is part of the fund of such County. Revenue arising within the Borough does not, however, accrue within the County, and the County has no right to such revenue. At present the revenue is not considerable —although it would have been if the borough had been proclaimed with the extended boundaries as surveyed. Still as the revenue is it is sufficient to keep np the protecting walls of the town,, and such works of public utilily as the byewash into the Dead Level fromKoach's Gully. The miners in the Borough have a fair claim upon the Municipal Council to see that all mining revenues accruing' within the boundaries should be spent on works of benefit to those who contribute them. At the same time the general ratepayer should be relieved from expenses he probably should never have been charged with. Miners rights -issued for claims and tail races within the Borough,and gold duty on all gold obtained in tail races within the Borough, or the half of the gold duty on gold obtained in tail races bounding the town, comprise the bulk of gold revenue accruing within the boundaries. This would be a sum amply sufficient for the purposes we have alluded to. In the interest of the town this ought to be pointed out, and the revenues claimed by the Borough. It is not clear that the Government need give the sums to the Council. It is clear that under the Abolition Act they belonged to the Municipality, and that under the Financial Arrangements Act they do not belong to the County fund.