The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (published every wednesday and saturday.) SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 274, 22 May 1875, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (published every wednesday and saturday.)

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1875.

We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.’

Although the imperfect state of the Provincial Highways Act 1874, has been known to many for sometime, we believe the Daily Southern Cross is the first journal in the province to publicly call attention to it. As the Act stands at this moment, part two. is, not only inoperative, but, should any augmentative individual feel inclined to try the question, it would also be found that, until the Superintendent brings the second part of the Act into operation, no further rates can be legitimately claimed, and recovered, and that all acts and deeds that have taken place under and by virtue of its provisions, have been done wrongfully. And there is no falling back upon the Acts of 1871, since the first part of the Act of 1874, which is in force, repeals those Acts. On the authority of the Cross, it would appear that an omission occurred in what is really the most vital clause of the Aet, during its passage through the Provincial Council, and it proceeds to shew the nature of the omission as having been supplied after the Act was assented to by the Superintendent, as follows: — The Superintendent may from time to time, as he shall see fit, by notification in the Provincial Government Gazette, bring this Act, or any part, thereof, into operation in any of the said districts, and thereupon, but not previously, this Act, or so much thereof as shall be specified in such notification, shall come into and remain in full operation therein ; and in such notification the day, hour, and place of meeting for the first meeting of ratepayers for such district shall be appointed. Provided t hat existing district s, as hereinbefore mentioned, shall, immediately from, and after the passing of this Act, come under the operation of the first [and second] part.s[s] thereof without any notification by the Superintendent.

The Cross thus remarks ;—“ As “ passed by the Provincial Council, “ and as originally printed, and, we “ believe, as at first assented to by the “ Superintendent, the clause did not “embody the words and letters we “ have given in italics, and placed “ within brackets These words were “ interpolated after a considerable “ time —after the Council had finished “ its busines and had been prorogued. “ By what means, or by whom the “ interpolation was effected, we really “ cannot tell; that it was effected we “ are assured by sundry lawyers, some “of whom have seen the Act as first “ issued, and also that which we are “ told was subsequently printed, and “ which contained the words the first “ Act did not contain.” * * * * • * * “ Any ratepayer might at “ any time challenge the validity of “the Act, obtain incontrovertible evi- “ dence to prove the post-legislative •• interpolation, and the consequent “ vitiation and abrogation of the powers “ of existing Highway Boards. Indeed “ such a result was imminent only the “ other day, in a case which was “ before the Resident Magistrate’s “ Court, and it was only a question “ of forbearance or good taste that “ prevented the plea of illegality being “ urged to upset the levying of the “ rate.”

Although we have felt bound to expose this piece of legislative bungling, we trust no ratepayer will take the trouble to endeavor to upset past transactions, nor seek shelter under the imperfect state of the law, and refuse to pay his rates. The difficulties, indeed, that may arise from the fatal omission of not including the second part of the Act in the clause quoted above, will be, doubtless, confined to the past, to upset which it would be a tedious and, probably, an expensive task. As to the present, and the future, they may have been already provided for by an Act of the Council indemnifying Highway Boards, and validating all things done and performed by them in error. It is-'to be hoped that this was amongst the first Acts of the Provincial Legislature, as it appears to be anything but certain that the Superintendent has power to proclaim the Act, or parts thereof, in force, in any but new districts, created by him for the purposes of the Act; a view, we take it as being pretty correct from the fact that the interpolation (assuming it to have been intended by the Council to be inserted in the original Act) distinctly does away with the necessity fora proclamation as far as regards part two in districts established at the time of the passage of the Act through the Chamber.