The Westport Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1872

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 966, 30 April 1872, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1872

It is understood that during the session which commences to-day, there will be introduced in the Nelson Provincial Council a Bill for the creation of Boards of Works in the several townships in the Province in which there is a necessity for some form of municipal management. The introduction of such a measure cannot fail to be hailed with approval and satisfaction by several communities, and more especially by that of Westport. Though the proposition to create in Westport a Municipal Corporation has in times past been often and warmly discussed, a decision in its favor was never arrived at, in consequence of a fear that the institution would prove altogether too magnificent for the situation, to say nothing of the probability of its being also too severe upon the pockets of the people. These fears were not altogether unjustified. The Act under which Municipalities have been formed in many parts of the Colony is confessedly a clumsy and cumbersome one, and, although we are not aware of an instance in which the existence of a Municipality has proved a worse evil than its absence, there inny certainly be quoted several instauces in which

the institution has not been without its drawbacks. The local feoling which has prevailed in this matter has, we fear, undergono no substantial chango, but we feel coniident that, although the adoption »of the Municipal Corporation Act would not be recommended, the creation of a Board of Works, in some simple and unambitious form, wamld now meet with general approval. It is altogether unreasonable to expect that minute details such as fall to be dealt with by a Municipal Council can be efficiently managed by a Provincial Government whose headquarters are some hundreds of miles distant from the scene of action, and, unless some local body be formed, Westport must continue to suffer from the reputation of being one of the most ill-regulated and illlooking townships to be found in the colony. To reduce the streets to something like a state of order, and to do the hundred other things that are requisite and urgent, the creation of some local public body is absolutely necessary. It need not be costly in its working, nor of great proportions numerically or in the list of its officials. Its power of taxation should bo also limited, but some small amount of taxation can scarcely bo dispensed with, and the sum so secured sbould certainly be supplemented by some rentable estato being reserved for the town, and for tho promotion of public purposes. Limiting also the operations of the Board to what may most unraistakeably be denominated town works, and leaving in the hands of the Government or a Harbor Trust the preservation of the harbor and harbor works, its field of labor, and the necessity for taxation, would be so small that no alarm need be entertained as to such a body becoming an incubus upon the community. We believe, indeed, that its value to the community would be fully realised within six months of its creation, if the Bill in any degree justifies our anticipation of its scope and character. JSTo doubt, at an early stage of the session, the Bill will be printed, and when placed before tho public we shall have an opportunity of discussing its merits or demerits in detail. Meantime we bespeak the favorable consideration by the community of any measure the intention of which is to promote local order and self-govern-ment.