The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14,1877.

Manawatu Times, Issue 34, 14 February 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1877.

The Horowhenua Biding of the Manawatu County, alias the Otaki Ward of the Manawatu Highways Board, has been hitherto m an anomalous position. The Board, having no map of the Ward, and having applied m vain to the Government for one some three months ago, has been unable to prepare a valuation roll or to strike a rate for the Otaki district. And now that the County Council has been constituted this duty devolves upon it, according to the 43rd clause of the Counties Act which is as follows : — The Council shall from time to time appoint some flb person or persons who I shall, on or before the first day of April m each year, prepare and send to the Clerk a list, m the form m the Sixth Schedule, of all persons m each outlying district m the county who, if such district were included m a road district, would be entitled to be placed on the valuation roll of such road district ; and shall assign to each such person the number of votes to which he would be entitled as such ratepayer. In making the valuations of property for the purpose of determining the number of such votes, the person making the same shall be guided by the provisions of "The Bating Act, 1876, for the valuation of rateable property. Any road district for which no valuation roll is prepared or m force shall be deemed to be an outlying district for the purpose of this section. The third section of this clause is intended to meet such cases as that of the Otaki Ward, and the time allowed for preparing a valuation roll will be but one month from the next meeting of the County Council. It was, doubtless, through an oversight that the matter was not alluded to at the last meeting of that body, and we would suggest to the Chairman

of the County, the expediency of making an urgent representation to Government of the necessity there is for supplying the Council with some reliable data on which to base a valuation roll for the Riding. Under existing circumstances the valuator or valuators appointed by Council would be dependent on the owners of property themselves for the necessary information as to acreage and boundaries, and it does not require the gift of prophecy to enable anyone to anticipate the endless difficulties — amounting, there can be little doubt, to impossibility — which would present themselves when a roll so prepared came before the Assessment Court. Objections would be .raised which the Court could not deal with. A would say that B had not given a true statement as to the rateable property of the latter ; B Would deny the charge, and there would be no means of investigating it. In short, a valuation roll cannot be prepared until the Government supply a map of the district, which they seem very slow m doing. There is also a serious doubt as to whether Mr M'Donald, who represents the Biding m the County Council, is legally m possession of his seat, such are the delightful obscurities of the Counties Act. Our correspondent " Justitia," whose letter appeared m our last issue, thinks that Clause 61 renders it necessary for a County Councillor to be also an elector of the County. A more obscure enactment, however, than that clause is seldom to be met with. It simply says : — " Every elector, except as hereinafter provided, shall be qualified to be a Councillor" — which may- mean every elector for the County or for any County, not to speak of the omission of any words expressly limiting the qualification to county electors. If Clause 51, which regulates the procedure at the first elections for the Councils, contained, like Clause 43, a provision defining road districts for which no valuation roll is prepared as outlying districts- for the purpose of the clause, then the possession of a vote for a member of the House of Representatives wouid have constituted Mr M'Donald and Ms constituents County electors. But though there can be no doubt tha^; the framers of the Act intended to have introduced such a provision into Clause 51, they have unfortunately neglected to do so ; and thus we are sent back to the general definition ol an outlyingdistrict m Clause 7. "We say there can be no doubt that the framers of the Act must have intended to introduce into Clause 51 the words " Any road district for which no valuation roll is prepared or m force shall be deemed to be an outlying district for the purpose of this section.' ' In Clause 43 these words are intended to prevent the disfranchisement of constituencies circumstanced like that of Otaki ; and as it is not to be supposed that the Legislature did not attach as much importance to the first elecI tion as to any subsequent one, the omission of the words m question from Clause 51 can onlj be regarded as an oversight. TJpoi the whole, we do not envy the Besdent Magistrates the task which isbef ore them m the event of their being called upon to exercise the juriidiction conferred upon them by Cause 95 of the Counties Act. TJitil the Act shall have been renderel somewhat less obscure, Clause 98, yhich ousts the jurisdiction of tb Supreme Court m questions of tlB kind, will, we should say, be regaried by our B..M.'s as conferring ij>on them a power not at all to be rejoiced m. The moral of the matte is that the consideration of the Gunties Act m Committee will have tbe resumed next session, when, it isto be hoped, there will be a chance if its being properly considered and not rushed through the* House.