The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 812, 30 August 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 30 1877.

The Waikato Times. # # # # * Here shall the Pres-j the People's rig! t maintain, Unaweil by influence and unbribed by ga n

Efforts are being made to carry out the determination arrived at by tbe late public meeting held at East Hamilton, m the matter of the bridge over the Waikato river, by forming the two townships into a borough. The petition to the Governor m the form prescr.bed by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1876, has been prepared, and the necessary signatures are already being affixed to it, According to the Act the Governor may, by proclamation, declare any district a borough under the Act, provided that the district so proclaimed comprises one continuous area, containing not more than nine square miles, and not having witin it any two points more than six miles distant from each other : Ifc must- also contain a population of not less than two hundred and fifty resident householders, and the petition praying for its erection into a borough mast be signed by at least one hundred of these householders. The petition must further contain a description of the area of the district, and be publicly notified before presentation to the Governor. Apart altogether from the question of the bridge, there appears to be a very general desire that the two townships shall be united m one governing body, and we shall therefore scarcely expect to find the sixth section of clause 17 of the Act broughc into operation, which gives to the inhabitants the right to protest against the creation of their district into a borough, which could not take place if within two months after tbe presentation of the petition above referred to a counter petition signed by an equal or greater number of resident householders shall have been presented to the Governor, praying him not to assent to the piviyer of the first petition. There is one other matter to which we may draw attention, and that is the provision contained m clause 18, which runs as follows : — l< I\', at the time of presenting such a petition, there exists m the district to which it relates any goveruing body empowered to levy rates, the rateable value of the property of each petitioner may be placed opposite bis name m such peticion ; and the number of signatures shall, m that case, be deemed to be iho number of I

votes which such petitioners would be entitled to give m respect of such rateable property at any election, if they were enrolled as burgesses under this Act"