THE MUNICIPAL FRANCHISE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9184, 5 September 1908, Page 4

THE MUNICIPAL FRANCHISE.

The most interesting Parliamentary event of Thursday was the killing of the Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill by the Legislative Council. This was the little Bill with which Mr Fisher sought to make the Parliamentary franchise apply to municipal elections. It passed through the Lower House with the assistance of the Premier. In the Council yesterday Dr. Findlay repeated the Government's endorsement, and justified it on the grounds that the existing residential qualification amounted to pretty much the same thing as the Parliamentary franchise, if only people cared to qualify by means of a sort of legal subterfuge. When the Hon. T. Kennedy Macdonald, after denouncing the Bill as uncalled for, crude and badly drafted by a mere apprentice to the business of legislation, concluded by movftig that it be read a se,cond time six months hence, the debate became animated, j There was a striking contrast between Captain Tucker's claim that property alone should ;Control muni* 1 cipal affairs and the contention of the Hons. Jones, Barr and other members that property's contribution to the local revenue was drawn from tenants, who were, therefore, equally 1 with owners, entitled to voting power. A division revealed thac the j only friends of the Bill were the Attorney-General, the Hons. Barr, * Beehan, Callan, Jonep, Paul and Rieg. It was thrown out by 22 to 7. !