WHICH IS BEST?

New Zealand Mail, Issue 12, 15 April 1871, Page 2

WHICH IS BEST?

We observe from our Southern files that the inhabitants of Invercargill have, after much anxious consideration, decided to seek incorporation under the Otago Provincial Ordinance, 1865, instead of the Municipal Corporations Act, 18C*, which we have adopted here. The advantages of the act passed by the Provincial Council of Otago over that passed by the Assembly, which seem to have weighed most with the Tnvercargillites, are first, that clause 18 enacts " that the citizens shall elect from among themselves" a citizen to be Mayor," while the Assembly act gives the election to a majority of the Council. The next is, that a summary mode is provided for the case of defaulters. Clause 30 is beautifully precise and stringent. It authorises " the Collector of Kates, by virtue of his appointment, after the expiration of the time limited for the payment of any such rate, to satisfy the demand by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of the person liable therefor, together' with certain charges specified by the schedule." The Assembly act only empowers the Council, fourteen days after demanding in writing • payment of the rates, to proceed to recover the same before any Justice, or by action of debt in any Court having jurisdiction. The third advantage is that elections under the Provincial Ordinance are by ~ ballot; while under the Colonial act they are to be conducted by open voting. The fourth advantage is that the Otago ordinance provides for voting according to the amount of property: properties at a rateable value of £350 and upwards having no more than rive votes; between £350 and £l5O, four votes ; between £l5O and £IOO, three votes ; between £IOO and £SO, two votes; under £SO, one vote. We congratulate the people of Invercargill upon their choice. They can adopt all that is really good (the 13th schedule) of the Municipal Corporations Act in parts, according to their requirements, and still enjoy these three great distinctive privileges, viz., a voice in the election of Mayor, vote by ballot at all their elections, and a cheap and easy method of gathering in the rates. We cannot help thinking these are provisions more in harmony with the best recognised principles of local selfgovernment, with the other representative institutions of the colony and with the requirements of the public interest. The latter is eminently serviceable, and if our collector had had this power, no such list of arrears as we lately published would ever have seen the light. We throw out these suggestions again in the hope they will be taken up, and the Act amended in the direction indicated.