LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5461, 27 September 1878, Page 3

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

’Thursday, Sept; 26. The the Acting-Speaker took the chair at the usual hour. PAPERS, ETC. Some reports were laid on the table, and notices of motion given. <TE ARO RECLAMATION BILL. The Joint Committee on Standing Orders reported that they considered this a private Bill, that nono of the standing orders concerning such Bills had been complied with, and the committee recommended that compliance with the standing* orders should be insisted on in all cases. THE THORNDON RECLAMATION. In connection with this subject Sir Dillon Bell gave notice that he would ask if it was true, as hod been stated, that the above reclamation had been practically handed over to the Corporation ; and if so, could that be done without legislative sanction. WELLINGTON LOCAL BOARDS EMPOWERING. This Bill was read a third time and passed. COUNTIES ACT AMENDMENT. Adjourned debate.—The Hon. Captain Eraser resumed the discussion. He spoke shortly against the Bill.—-The Hon. Mr, Wilson said it was not intended to press on the measure in its present shape. In committee they would stop at the preamble, and then substitute new clauses.—The Hon. Mr. Millur called attention to the desirability of enforcing the proper loading of passengers, restricting their number.—The Hon. Messrs. Holmes and Hall followed. The latter considered it highly desirable that there should be intermediary bodies between the Government and the road boards, and he spoke with some authority on the matter, as he had presided for a long time over the largest county in New Zealand. (Hear, hear.) —Sir D. Bell, seeing that the whole Bill was to be altered, did not intend to be drawn into a discussion j but the general question had been referred The county councils had been a conspicuous failure. He advocated increased powers to the road boards, and trusted that the stupid arrangement by which counties were allowed to refuse to come within the general provisions of the Counties Act would be altered. —The Hon. Mr. Waterhouse thought that some special provision should bo made for the maintenance of main roads ; he considered that at present the counties failed to perform the important duty of looking after the main roads. —The Hon. Mr. Campbell said that in his district the present system worked well, and ho had no doubt that if the people were polled it would be found that they much preferred the present system to the old form of provincial government.—The Hon. Mr. Bonar, speaking of his own county, said their experience was greatly in favor of the present system as against the provincial form of government. He agreed with Mr. Waterhouse that provision should be made for the maintenance and repair of main roads,—The Hons. G. Buckley and Dr. Grace followed, the latter saying that in the county with which he was acquainted—Wairarapa East —the action of the county system had been found beneficial. A most important consideration was that the Counties Act had stirred up a spirit of local action. At the same time it was necessary to smooth the machinery.—The Hon. Mr. Nurse, referring to the question of borrowing powers, thought this a vital question. The very road boards had larger borrowing powers than the county councils. They could not make large main roads without borrowing some money.—The Hon. Colonel Whitmore, referring to the delegates, would point out that they did not come at >the invitation of the Government; and secondly, that they did not come at the time when their suggestions would be of nfie. They should have come, if they came at all, three months sooner. • Nevertheless he had inserted some of their recommendations. He was not prepared at all to say that the county council system was either a failure or a conspicuous failure. He thought the road boards should have been made the road making body. If either the county councils or road boards were to disappear it must be the councils. Colonel Whitmore defended the optional clauses of the Act. Referring to pastoral holders being taxed in one county and not in another, that was a matter that would soon be altered, and they would be taxed all round. As to the difficulty of deciding what was a county road, the councils ought ,to be able to settle that themselves. The local bodies must begin to look to themselves for providing money, and not to the Parliament, and the sooner they looked that fact in the face the better. The Bill was then read a second time, HARBOR BILL.

The Council went into committee on this Bill, taking up the postponed clauses. Clause 45 was struck out, and progress was reported. At the evening sitting the Council again went into committee on the pastponed clauses o£ the Harbor Bill Some progress was made, and the committee reported. The Council adjourned at 9 o’clock.