SLIPSHOD LEGISLATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10181, 6 March 1911, Page 4

SLIPSHOD LEGISLATION.

If an example were wanted of the awful bungles which are enacted in

the- namo of legislation in this delightfully democratic country, it is to be found in the Harbour Boards Am ndment Act which was placed upon the Statute Book mst session. The measure is so crude in effect and'' 'undemocratic in detail as to be almost ludicrous. One lias only to examine it from the point of view of the election procedure to discover its anomalies and absurdities. Provision is made that an election shall be held on the same date as the municipal elections, and the rolls of the local authorities in the various districts are to be utilised. In the Wairarapa we have live boroughs, two town . districts, and eight counties. As the poll has to be taken on the same date as the borough elections, the electors of counties and town districts will be compelled to travel :>o the booths in their respective districts to record their votes on the Harbour '.Hoard issue alone. More than that, while the municipal rolls are made up to within a few days of an election, the county and town district rolls will be old and incomplete. But that is not all. While the Parliamentary franchise is practically extended to those who dwe,ll in the five boroughs, only ratepayers will be permitted to vote in the eight counties. The Legislature has discriminated between the franchise of boroughs and counties, and this discnmiination is extended to the Harbour Board elections. A- more undemocratic proceeding could not be imagined. The whole business is a xiotch-potch, a bungle and a delusion.