The Press. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17,1876.

Press, Volume XXVI, Issue 3495, 17 November 1876, Page 2

The Press. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17,1876.

The duties and functions of the Counties are not definitely laid down in any one of the three Acts which we are considering: they are to be found scattered through the -Counties. Act, the Public Works Act, and the Financial Arrangements Act indiscriminately. In fact, these three statutes require to be Jead together, for in several instances it is not possible to construe oneof them without referring for explanation, to the others. And this Tenders it all. the more necessary tjbftt a summary of them should be given; for it may be takeaffor granted tjhat~ifi.W-_people have, had the opportunity ot studying and comparing the tjhree Acts. We said yesterday that r tshe A£t contained thelpecuprovision that eacli County Council might, within three months of its first meeting, decide whether certain portions of the ActeHtmM Uβ Drought into force within its County, In case tt should depide. in the negative, it would' have ho further work to do every year than to for a few 1 minutes to distribute certain moneys amongst the Road Boards- But in, case it decides in -thecaffiniiatkej 'the*- there will be |n foree 8 ' all the clauses of the. Act which. contain the functions of the County Council, and the new system <j>f kcv rament will be brought fairly jnto action. We need not givVtnej fletails of many of these claueee, contained in the earlier parts of the Act, which refer chiefly toJihe proceedings kt meetings of the Councils, alteration of boundaries, division into new jCountiee, arid so on. But we must, point out, that in the event of a Council refusing to bring the Act into force, the whole system of election of councillors would be. done away with. The sections of the Act which define what a county elector is would be null and void, and the'Oounty CounciVas far «is we can mate out from section 52, would be nominated by the jGovernor. It is to be hoped that few iCounties will be placed in this position, foi? true local government cannot be I obtained without the principle of elective representation. , Passing to those clauses which define the powers of the 'County Councils we find, first, that they will have to deal with what is called the >* County Fund." This Fund is , to consist of all rates and tolls levied by the County, rente and profits from County property, all subsidies and moneys received from the Colonial Government orthe General Assembly, all fees, fines, and penalties recoverable by the County, all proceeds of County Loans, and any other moneys which may become the property of the County. Turning to section 107, we ifind that the Coufici! may levy geheral rates on all rateable" property within the County up to_one shilling in the pound; separate rates for any work required for particular portions of the County, also op to one shilling in the pound; and special rates up to any required- limit for providing interest and sinking fund on loans raised by the County. There is nothing that we have seen in the Acts which seems to annul the powers at present possessed by the Road Boards of levying genera) and special rates: consequently there may be in any year both County rates and Koad With regard to fees and fines, we find that these are to be received by the County from publicans', auctioneers', end music ball Hcenses, dog fees, scab fines, and such like, and penalties for breach of any bye-law made by the I County Council. The subsidies from the Colonial Government will be first, payments from the Laud Fund of the provincial district *t the rate of onehalf the amount received-each year by the County from Trates j secondly, an equal sum payable from the Consolidated fund of the colony ; a proportionate share, calculated J>&™3f accOTdflng to •xwfciitrfeei according to the subeidiee receivable

by them, of the balance of the land funk after deduction of all charges upon it. The second item, however, will only be receivable for the first five yean. Aβ for loans, the ninth part of the Aat provides, first, that the Councils may borrow as required, by way of overdraft, any cum not exceeding the amount reached by the County fgjhd in the financial year preceding ; secondly, th>t they may, either singly. or jointly, for the purpose of undertaking Borne special public work, borrow money by way of special loans. Certain conditions-are attached

to this privilege. Fi|»t, the ; debentures are not to have more than fifty years

currency. the amount to be borrowed by a County shall not at any time be more than four times the amount of the general County rates of any one year. Thirdly, no loan eball be raised unless the ratepayers, at a special meeting called for the purpose decide, by ballot, and by a majority of three-fifths of their number, in favor of the proposal. We have now run through the chief items of the County Bevenues: it remains to see what the Councils are to do with their money. ' To begin with, they will have to make provision for the payment of such officers, clerks, treasurers, and so on, as they may require, and probably each County will agree to paj a certain amount to its chairman. But theee Bums need not be large. Then section 187 of the Counties Act provides that " the Council, shall have full ? power and authority to erect, " struct, and maintain within the " County any public works" which it may consider to "be neceseary or .beneficial.'.. The next section >rovides that it may agree with any Boad Board within the County to execute such works, and may pay to such Eoad Board the required cost; and the next section empowers it to* pay to the Boad Boards any sums, "rom the County Fund, as it may think it from time to ac subsidies towards the execution of the works properly belonging to the Eoad Boards. There is a certain sort of indistinctness about these clauses which is not cleared away, as far as we can see, by the rest of the Acta. It is not easy to understand precisely what public works are supposed to belong to the County and* what to the Eoad Boards. No doubt; after a time, the distinction wiJl come to be well understood. But we ehould not be Burprwed if, for the first few months, there were found some difficulty in adjusting the powers of the different bodies* The Government have repeatedly asserted the necessity 6f clearly defining the limits of power of the* Counties and Eoad Boards; *nd it is a pity that the excellent theory enunciated has not been carried out in practice. But two- works are specifically named in the Acts as ihose which the .Counties thenv 1 selves ; are to undertake. These are County roads and drainage. Aβ fqr ; the first, it is nowhere stated -whatia ro be the distinctive character of County roads; but in the Public Works rAct it is provided that, the Council may at any time r<, e atube » county roaa, ana ttom that forward the Soad Board wilf cease to baye anything to do with it. We presume, though there ia no clear statement to that effect, that these roads would be those forming the great arteries of, communication, such w, for instance, the North road to the Hurunui, orthe West Coast road, or the road to Akaroa. All drains, except as provided by 'the Christchurch Die-, trict Drainage Act, are to be under the ponttol o? the County, and no Boad JBoard, wifi be able to drain either roade or lands without the approval of the County Council. Drainage wil therefore form one of the principal works of the County, and we presume that such Boards as the jEangiora and lM*ndeyille Board of Conservatore will hand over their functions t& the Councils. We have that k>nly two public works *re specifically named in the Acts as belonging to the Counties. But the clause emipowering the Councils to cpnetruct any works which they may consider necessary is. a very "elastic one, and we have no doubt that these bodies will before long be able to find for themselves plenty of ways for disposing of

their funds. ! Besides* the care of public works, the County Councils will have other important duties to perform in the direction of establishing and,managing public .institutions. As time goes on ; and our population becomes larger and settlement more extended, it ia evident that our present Hospitals, Asylums, and the like will not be sufficient to

meet bur wants. In each County I. therefore the Council will be able to set on foot and maintain such institutions, and, naturally, aa their area of utility, will not he very large, a.cloae local supervision can be kept over them. Charitable aid in the way of poor relief outside of any particular institution, will also bo within the province of the Council; as wilt likewise be the establishment and maintenance of County Museums, Mechanics' Institutes, Public Recreation Beservea, Markets, Public Pounds, and the like. For all of these provision is made in tae Counties Act, and we are glad that it is co, because, in Canterbury at least, a good deal has been already done for these objects, and it would be a great pity if they were allowed to die out. There are| several recreation reserves and public domains in different parts of the Provincial District, and we believe that they, are very much appreciated by the people. Ti»e Public Libraries which exist in such profusion amongst us a*e more useful still, and ought to be fostered to the greatest extent. . As for the Charitable Aid, we are iuclined to think that under the Country system its administration may be a gocd deal improved, because the supervising authorities will be brought, as it were, much Bearer to their work: There will be closer and more local enquiry into eacb case, and the work can be kept very mueb better in hand than can possibly ibeiiue case over such a largS- Strict: as 4 whole. We need not dwell upon the

provisions of the Act for the establishment; b$ markets and the like, as thesei-inll be sufficiently obvious. We hate now, we believe, fairly summarised the enactments whicK embody the system of County , fH&f vernment for the future. As we hare said, it has been impossible to give a fair idea of the system without taking the three principal statutes together. The Counties Act requires to be perpetually supplemented by either the Financial Arrangements Act or the Public "Works Act. There are, however, in the twa last a number of provisions which do not always directly touch the principle of the County System. The Financial Arrangements Act contains clauses defining the manner in which the Land Fund and Consolidated FunAare to be operated on, the valuation 4>f Provincial Bailways and property, and other financial details. The Public Works Act contains regulations for all railway matters, for compensation for land taken from private owners,, for surveys, drainage, and water races, and for all those minor questions relating to road diversions and the like which used to be settled by the Provincial Councils. We propose to summarise the provisions of these two Acts in a future article, as they complete the system under which the colony is to be governed. But before ending our explanation: of the County system in itself, would once again remind our readers that the first election of County Councillors will probably take place in a short time. The Council* now elected mil have firsfr>to decide whether^tbe moßt important parts of the Act shall come into force in their Counties. It is for the ratepayers to see that they;" do not elect a body of men who would bring the whole local government of the Colony into disarray by refusing to undertake the duties imposed upon them. It is also for the ratepayers to ccc that they elect as Councillors men who will be able to work prudently and steer carefully through the difficulties of bringing into ordep a new system of Government, probably not, known %o the majority-- amongst them. It ie not, impossible, that: for the first few months there may be many hitches. But the Colony is committed to the new system, and it only requires the goodwill of the local authorities to make it work satisfactorily.