REGULATION OF LOCAL ELECTIONS ACT.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 796, 24 July 1877, Page 3

REGULATION OF LOCAL ELECTIONS ACT.

Sir, — Owing to my temporary absence from Hamilton I did not see " Trustee's" letter in jour Thursday's issue till to-day. "Trustee," I think, does not exhibit his usual acumen when he states as u reason that the Va 3payers of' the Hamilton West Town Board Highway District should not be consulted as to whether the Regulation of Local Elections Act should be brought into force in their district that the Board have foreordained the question for them The Act nowhere says that it shall rest with the Board to give the ratt*yajers an opportunity of expressing their opinion on the matter. The privilege it gives to tho Board is. simply to confirm or veto the wish of the Ratepayers. .Doubtless in framing the Act, the Assembly conceived that the Board, an elected body, would largely conform to the expressed wish one way or the other of tlie people whom it was supposed to represent, and it certainly was never intended, as Trustee would lead the public to suppose, that the Board was to decide for the ratepayers without an expression of- opinion being first obtained from them. If, however, tbe members 'of the Board chose to take up this position, there is a simple remedy in the hands of the ratepayers at tha annual meeting, namely, to return such men as Trustees who will, pledge themselves to bring the Regulation of Local Elections Act into operation. "Trustee" talks of the addition to the cost of nuremunerative expenditure thejeonduct of eiectins under the Act would entail, but what would such really amount to — not ote per cant upon the rates, while it would sucure to tha ratepayers freedom of election and allow a man, a« I said before, to vote -is he pleased without fear of being ineligible for a contract should be have dared to h<f.ve voted against one or other of the afterward successful candidates. "Trustee's" concluding clup-trap about the temper of the Hamilton ratepayers will scarcely have the eff.-ct of softsawderiug them over, for they only know too well the whip and spur of class dqmination and are determined to take the bit in their mouths this time.— l am, &o, Stuck in th b Mto. Hamilton, July 21st, 1877.