QUALIFICATION OF BURGESSES.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1401, 25 June 1881, Page 3

QUALIFICATION OF BURGESSES.

The following is a copy of a letter forwarded by Mr A. Potter, Hamilton East, to the member for Waikato :—: — Sir, — Last session of Parliament it was discovered that a person being ever so great a landowner, outside a Borough, was not eligible to the office of Mayor or Councillor unless lie held rateable property to the value ol £25 ; see Municipal Corporations Act, part 5, clause 60, to give property that advantage, a short "Amendment Act" was passed, enabling all who paid rates to become eligible. I will now take the liberty of drawing your attention to one or two of the most unju&t and debasing 1 clauses that disgrace the Municipal Corporations Act, 40, 41, and 61. If there was no Summary Proceedings Act, whoroby a Corporate or Local Governing body could enforce their claims, such clauses may possibly be argued a justification, or, it may be advanced that such clauses are necessary to compel the punctual payment of rates. To these I answer, the authority in such matters, that requires maintenance by coercive measures cannot be free, and is only resorted to by a government who fears tho full development of public opinion. Where the small debts courts are in existence, and are always used by the local governing bodies to enforce their demands, then I submit such clauses become oppiessive, obnoxious and repulsive. Clause 40 provides a defaulters list, or in other w ords a local pillory, whereby yew placard and hold in contempt any ov all persons who may have been so unfortunate as not to possess the means of paying their rates at a given time, and, as if this was not sufficent, you disfranchise them by clause 41 thereby giving property a decided advantage over those who may be so situated — it invariably falls upon the working man ; it may be in consequence of want of employment, sickness, or other unavoidable chcumstances added to whioh, as if the depths of wrong and degradation had not been sufficiently reached clause 61 places him upon a' par with the bankrupt, the insolvent the felon and the perjurer. As I have before stated there are the ordinary courts of law open to all local governing bodies to recover their just demands which in all cases are made available to them. Permit me then to entreat you to use your influence' to at once remove such a blot upon free' local institutions as those clauses in 1 the Municipal Corporaton referred to and kindred Local Acts, — Yours etc. ' ' Albert Potter, Hamilton, 20fch June 188 1. 1