PAPERS ON THE NEW CONSTITUTION OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 361, 29 September 1849, Page 3

PAPERS ON THE NEW CONSTITUTION OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

Sucn being tho general views we entertain as to the creation of the proposed Australian Legislatures, it sccmn nrcessary to adveit, however briefly, to the subordinate and auxiliary exactments requis.te for giving effect to that design. We shall, however, indicate the principal topics of this class to which it will be neceisaiy to advert, without entering into any minuto examination of the particular course which it would be desirable to follow in regard to each of them. The statute-book abound* In recent precedents of such enactments. They will especially be found in the Acts establishing the existing legislature of New South Wales, and in the recent act for establishing a legislature in New Zealand. The main object* of them, are the division of each colony into convenient electoral districts ; the determining who shall be qualified to vote and to be elected ; the settling whatever relates to the registration of votes, the conduct of elections, and the making returns; the ascertaining all the rules to be observed rc-pectiug the nomination of such of the members as are not to be elected; the defining the powers of the Governor to the acceptance or rejection of bills; the defining the piwers of your Majesty with regard to the confirmation or disallowance of any such bill 3; and th°, securing to the EKecii'ive Government of each colony the initiation of all money votes. It would be easy to enlarge this catalogue of subordinate topics demanding attention in framing the proposed Act of Parliament ; but, for the reason already mentioned, we apprehend that it would be a needless addition to the length of this Report. We should think it prudent, if we thought it practicable, to confine the proposed Act to those provisions which are necesjary for constituting legislatures in the four colonies in question, and for enabling those legislatures to peifonn the duties to which they will be called. For we contemplate with great icluctance any departure from the general principle which leaves to the locil legislature of every colony the creation of other local institutions! and the cmctment of any laws which are to have their operation within the local limits of the colony. But there arc circumstances which Feem to render unavoidable some deviation from that principle in the case of the Australian Colonies. Thus throughout New South Wales there are nt present existing (at least in point of law) municipal corporations called District Councils. In poiut of fact and for every practical purpose, these bodies may be regarded as extinct. Nevertheless, their legal rights, founded on an Act of Parliament, might at any time be called into action. It becomes therefore inevitable that Parliament should, in some form or other, dispose of the claims of these bodies to corporate powers and privileges. The most obvious course is that of a simple repeal of so much of the existing statute as relates to the District Councils, leaving the loral legislatures to deal with the subject aftmvards at their discretion. The objection to this method of proceeding i«, that it would not really be the mere lemoval from the British statute book of a sericßof ineffectual enactment!. It would be regarded, and not unreasonably regarded, in these colonies, as a significant intimation of the judgment of Parliament, that local municipal corporations might safely be dispensed with in their system of government. We think that it would be highly inexpedient to afford any countenance to such an opinion. We arc of opinion that the existence in Australia of municipal bodies in a state of efficiency is scarcely less necessary to the public welfare than the existence there of reprtsentative legiilatures. A large part of the benefits to be derived from such legislatures seems to us to depend on the simultaneous establishment and co«existence of incorporated municipalities. It is the only prncticable security against the danger of undue centralization. It ia the only security for the vigilant and habitual attention by the local legislature to the interests of tlie more remote localities. It is by such bodies alone that in those secluded societies public spirit is kept alive, and skill in the conduct of public affairs acquired and exercised. It is in such corporations that the colonists are trained to act as legislators in a larger sphere. By them, and by them alone, can any effestual resistance be made to the partial and undue dedication of the public reiources to the advantage of districts peculhrly fortunate in the zeal and authority of their representatives in the legislature. For these reasons we cannot think it right that the le^al existence of the existing District Councils should be abolished by Parliament. We think it would be a better course that the Act of Parliament passed in 1842 should be amsnded, by enacting that the district council! which it contemplated should not be brought into operation unless upon the petition of the inhabitants of the several districts]; and that the Governor should be invested with the power of issuing charters for creating these corporations in the districts from which he should receive petitions for their establishment, such petitions fairly representing the prevailing and deliberate wishes of the inhabitants of any luch district. We apprehend that this arrangement, by which the grant of corporate powers would be left to the Governor, as the represen • tative of your Majesty, wou'd be in strict accordance with the practice ot this country from the earliest period. The ancient chatters of incorporation were granted on the petition of the towns to which they were accorded by the Sovereign!. The early charters invested the corporations with the right of holding markets and of levying tolls, and lauded property wus also frequently conferred upon them ; and they were thus placed in a possession of such resoutces as were necessary for the proper performance of the duties assigned to them. When, in the progress of society, a different state of things had arisen, and it was no longer possible to provide any new corpoiatiom which might be created with the pecuniary means of discharging the functions belonging to them without the imposition of rates, as it was held that the authority of the Crown did not extend to empoweiing corporations created by it to levy rates, the practice of granting chatters fell into disuse, and many of our laigcit towns experienced much inconvenience from being without any adequate local

organization. To meet tins difficulty, Parliament, in reforming the ancient corporations, invested the Crown, in the year 1835, with the power of granting charters, by which the corporations so created should be authorised to levy rates for local purposes. Charters of incorporation have in this country, it is true, been confined to the towns; but, without charters, the rural districts havo poisessed from the earliest times an organization enabling them to manage their own local affairs with but little interference on the part either of the Crown or of the legislature, except for the purpose of from time to time extending or regulating the exercise of the powers of their local authorities. The parish vestries, from very ancient times, have exercised the power of levying rates for the repiir of churchej, lo which was afterwards added the relief of the poor. The magistrates, also, who may be regarded as the virtual representatives of the counties, have been empowered by Acts of Parliament, passed at various times, to levy county rates for the purpose of building bridge*, e;aols, lunatic aiylmns, and courthouses: also for the custody of prisoners, for maintaining a policp, and for various other purpoiesof local Iniereit. It ha* always been held that this system of Leal government has been one of the main elements of our national greatness, and of the stability of the British Constitution. In Australia it seems impossible, from its peculiar circumitancei, to create so complex a system of local organization as that which prevails in this country : in their present stale of progress, inconvenience only could result fiom attempting to create in these colonies parishes, poor-law unions, and corporate towns, with their distinct powers ; the same localities being, for different purposes, under the jurisdiction of two or i three different local authorities. But wo are of opinion that it would be both practicable and desirable that ao extensive a tenitory should be divided into districts, each possessing some body of a representative character, constituted in some simple manner, to which ihould , be entrusted all the [towers of local administration which are required. Such a body ought to possess the power of levjuiK rates; but we would recommend that j the exercise of this power should not be made impera- | tire, and that the provision of the existing Act of Parliament, which renders it neccisary that half the expense of the Police in each district should be thus levied, should be repca'ed. The colonial legislature ought, we think, to have full power to pass laws, making any regulations it may think fit as to the mode of assessing and levying rates; also for making any alterations which may be found necessary in the constitution and in the duties assigned to these municipal bodies. We recommend that the provisions we have now described should be made applicable to Van Diemen's Land and South Australia, as well as to the provinces into which New South Wales will be divided, and should likewise be extended to Western Australia, whenever that settlement may be capable of receiving a representative legislature. It may however be questionrd, and with great apparent reason, whether there exists, or is likely to arise, in any of these colonies a disposition to bring into action the dormant powers of the existing municipal! • ties, or to solicit the grant of any new powers of that nature. It is at lea t certain that there has hitherto been a strong disinclination in the rural districts of New South Walei to assume the privileges and to undertake the responsibilities of such incorporation, iind that reluctance may of course be found insuperable hereafter. If so we should regard it as a conclusive objection to the project of reviving the old, or of creating new municipalities. Neither your Majesty nor Parliament would dt sire to force unwelcome duties on the Australian colonist* under the name of franchises. If such duties are not undertaken with alacrity, and performed with zeal, and controlled by public vigilance, and rewarded by public applause, they would be undertaken to no good purpose, and would be better declined. But the acknowledged want of abcrity and zeal in this service in the municipal corporations already ts« tublished, has been publicly and generally ascribed to a cause which we tre disposed to regard as remediable. In order to the effective execution of the powers of these bodies, it would be necessary to raise large local rates, and to devote a large part of the produce of them to an expenditure unfruitful of any considerable or immediate advantage to the rate payers. If, for example, a road or drain should be formed through a district imperfect y settled, by the produce of rates levied on the present settles, that outlay would confer on the ungrantcd lands, in proportion to their extent, a benefit equal to that which the settled lands would derive from it. Eventually, indeed, those ungranted lands would be sold at prices enhanced by this application of the local rates, and the general territorial revenue of the colony would to the same extent be enhanced ; but the rate-payers of the district would receive no peculiar benefit excepting that of the more rapid increise of settlement in their immediate vicinity. Persons living in a new country, to whom the command of capital is of such urgent importance, can never be expected to find in such remote, uncertain, and inapplicable benefits as these, a motive strong enough to induce them to impose on themselves rates to which the wild lands could contribute nothing. To remove this very reasonable objection, we would observe that one-half of the territorial revenue of the Australian colonies is at present appropriated by Act of Parliament to the cost of introducing emigrants. The remaining half, subject to a deduction of certain enumerated charges, has been placed by Parliament at the disposal of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury for the public service of the respective colonies. We recommend that, of the territorial revenue realized in each district, the proportion thus left under their Lordihips' control should be placed bv them at the disposal of the District Councils for objects of local concern, reserving only such a per centage as might be necessary for any purposes of general interest which ought to be charged upon this fund. We should further propose that the sum so placed at the disposal of the Dist ict Councils should be applicable exclusively to public works within their respective districts. We also think that no such work, if effected at the expense or by the aid of the land fuud, should be undertaken without a previous report on its probable advantages, and a previous estimate of its cost by official persons duly qualified to prepare such reports and estmates . Further, we would advise that no such work should be actually undertaken without the previous sanction of the Govcrnoi in Council, founded on the proposed estimates and reports. Finally, we think that theproper officers of eich District Council should render annually accounts of Ihe grants of the last preceding year, which accouats should be published for general information. No add.tional grant ought to be made to any such, body so long as any such account was in arretir. It appears to us that by dedicating to these purpcsti that part of the land fund which Parliament has lef at the disposal of the Crown, ma ly important ends would be answered. The Executive Government in thit country would be relieved of the responsibility vrhi' h ii as needless as it is invidious. A powerful mot ye would be called into action for the acceptance and employment ol the proposed c irporate franchises. The great principle of devoting the land fund to the

utmost possible extent to the improvement of the land would be observed. The manual labourers introduced into the colony by the one-half of that fund would not more directly contribute to the improvement of the territory, than thejremaining portion would contribute to that end by the creation of loads, drains, and other similar works. The price of all ungranted lands in the district would be enhanced by bucli works, and of that increased price the colony would receive the benefit in an augmented emigration fund, while the particular district would also receive a particular benefit from it in an augmented dividend of the pait of the fund which we propose to dedicate to these services. It would operate as an inducement to purchase waste lands to bma fide settlers, as every such purchaser would, through the Council of his distnct, viitnally receive back again a large part of his payment for the land in improvements of the locality in which it was situated. Thus every diatiict in which sales of Ciown lando could be effected would be in a state of progressive improvement. As, by means of successive sales, the waste lands of the Crown io. any distiict became email in comparison with the improved lunils of actual settlers, this source of local revenue would indesd diminish ; but the value of the rateable property would he continually increasing. The leaourccß afforded by this use of the funds at the disposal of the Lords of the Treasury would thus coma in aid of the- local lcsources of a district wh«n euch nid was most esscnttnl to its welfare, and would ccasp to avail the district as it became more and more independent of all resources but its own. Thus District Councils would be rescued from the necessity of contracting debts in the infancy of the settlement of their district, when the lenders of the money would demand a very high rate of interest, and such loans would be necessary only in districts wealthy enough to be able to make them on moderate terms. [To be Continued.]

[Continued.]