PROPOSED AUTOCRACY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8483, 10 July 1907, Page 4

PROPOSED AUTOCRACY.

The Rotorua Town Bill, introduced by Sir Joseph Ward, is a very short measure involving a very grave principle. It is proposed in this Bill to

substitute for local self-government at Rotorua autocratic administration; to place in the hands uf one man a power and authority more absolute than that possessed by any Government Resident in the islands. The town is to be handed over to the management of the General Manager of the Tourist Department, who is to exercise all the powers and authorities conferred by law on Borough Councils, except the power to boi-row money by way of special loan or to make and levy a special rate, in addition to acquiring such powers and authorities as may be delegated by the Governor under the Thermal Springs Act. As a condition precedent the Rotorua Town Council Act, 1900, and the Rotorua Town Council Validation and Extension Act, 1901, are to be repealed, and the property, assets, liabilities and the rights of the Town Council, as constituted under those Acts, are to vest in the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, and the Town Council is to cease to exist. The date of its demise and the coming into operation of the autocracy is appropriately fixed for April Ist, which is still described in some calendars as "All Fool's Day." An officer of the Department is to be appointed to carry out the provisions of the Act under the direction of the General Manager, and the Department is in respect of the town of Rotorua to be a body corporate, with Efcommon seal, with capacity to sue and be sued. Doubtless wealthy Russian tourists will appreciate the new order of things as smacking somewhat of "home, sweet, home." We shall have a lesser "Dominion" within our little "Dominion," and when we want to recuperate at Rotorua we shall have to bow down to the groat don who is to be equipped with princely powers. Slowly but surely the Tourist Department is spreading its tentacles over the colony. It dominates our rivers, estuaries, lakes, our mountains, and forests, to a greater or less extent, and by and by it will have pretty dominions of its own which will make it a great power in the land. It will be interesting to note what Parliament will have to say when this new departure comes under its notice in the ordinary courss of business.