The Press. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1889.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7265, 26 January 1889, Page 4

The Press. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1889.

Thb first County Council elections under the new Local Government Act in "England have resulted greatly in favor of'the liberals. This 'will serve to impress: upon country squires the magnitude 6$ ;th,echanges which the Act has introduced, and will give Toms of, *he old school, who ars SpS td be found in the provinces, occasion to abuse anew the democracy of" these times; There; is nothing which the advancing wave of democracy haaleft so long unvioiated as the rural administration. The Parliamentary franchise has widened and widened until " the masses." have "the classes Mii quite 'at theiif meroy, but *with all this progress of the democratio principle, almost''all power * over 1 ; *urar ministration has been left until now in the hands of the Crown. Guardians and members of Highway Boards are elected, but the members of nearly every other local authority; owe their appointment directly to the Crown. The Crown naturally and nob improperly 'entrusted to the country gentry such local administrative work as had to be done. They gave them the management of county bridges, * industrial schools/ reformatories and * lunatic asylums. They entrusted them with the levying of rates and local taxation, and the. licensing of inns and music halls. They were appointed to attend to the division of the county into polling districts for parliamentary elections, and to. the registration of voters; and they had to carry out the administrative 'machinery of the Acts relating to adulterated food, contagious diseases of animals* and weights and* measures. These and a number of. other, similar offices have from time immemorial been filled by the rural aristocracy, and.it must be said that they discharged their duties not badly. The power of the Crown to appoint to! these offices is, however, entirely opposed to the representative principle, which requires that those who pay rates should alone appoint the: persons who are to administer them, and the system of local; Governmemt, which has hitherto existed in England, has always been more or less an anomaly. When th? present Goventment undertook the task of providing a more consistent and comprehensive system, it, was agreed at once that the new local authority must- be elective. County Councils wert accordingly created to take over all local

adminlstratidp, excepting only the Department of Education, Justice, the Poor Law, and the police. Even .the police- are not . altogether outside of. the control of; the Oooncils, as they are governed by a mixed Conunittee appointed by the Councils and Quarter Sessions. The powers of the County Cotmoila are, therefoie, very extensive, and unless the landed gentry are elected Councillors they will find their old political vbcatdoai pretty well gone, Mr RHCHiE'a Ac* must in any case make a> great change in rural. adminiatratwn in Englaod, and if the sqoirea ot the old school have been beaten everywhere in the elections, as it seems they have, the change from the old to the new regime will be the more conspicuous.'.. _' : ; ; ;- si ■' , _ .;;_ .

It seems strange that & change such as this, which shears the landed gentry of all their accustomed offices, upsets the traditions of their forefathers, and takes away the breath of every Tor j in England, should have been designed and executed by a Ccbservative Administration. , Yet gqch , ia... literally 4he ease. The Samhbobt Mimetry passed' tbe Local Government 4!ct nnder no fear of loa* of; onice^ 1 nor

even under pressure from their LiberalUnionist allies. They did itnquite voluntarily, and withsperfect knowledge of its probable consequences. They saw the country gentlemen on the one side, and democratic principles on/ the other, and tfiey chose deliberately the latter. We take that to be one of the strongest evidences in recent English politics that the old party lines are quite effaced. Vested interests now, as such/ appear to be quite out of court, and any Government which hopes to rule in. England muet make up its mind to do bo , on democratic lines. What would a Conservative of Sir- Robbbt Peel's day say ,to Mr. Ritchw's County Councils—even supposing Lady Sandhurst and Mrs. Jans CoßDßtfdo not carry their point that the ladies are entitled to sit on them? Or, fancy one of Anthont Trollope's self-important squires handing over his public offices to a Council composed of his tradesmen,, his tenants, and his greengrocer's 1 wife. The Tory of the old pattern will soon have very little to live for.

When the present Hospital and Charitable Institutions Ace was'passed the colony was divided under it into a certain number of districts. The idea was that these districts were sufficiently large to do away to a great extent with difficulties as to the question of settlement. It was reoognised that in a new country like this it would be a very difficult task to ascertain the real place of residence of many applicants for relief. Our population are much more given to wandering over the country than is the cese at home, where the greatest attention is given to the law of settlement, and where the guardians of different Unions spend considerable sums annually in disputes in connection with this question. By making our districts comparatively large ones,, as we have just said, it was hoped that occasions . for disputes would not be numerous. It was further hoped that by including the large towns in the districts of which they formed the centre the rates would be equalised, it being a well-known fact that the applicants for charitable relief gravitate as a rufc to the populous centres, Yet ever since the Act came into operation, there has baen a targe amount of discontent in the country diatriota. The Charitable Aid Boards have considerable difficulty in collecting the contributions from the local bodies, and in some places have even had to threaten legal proceedings. The. rural districts, in fact, display in numerous instances the utmost repugnance to pay up, on the ground' that tfkere Aa very little poverty in their districts, Mid that if they were charged with the harden of maintaining their own poor the cost would be next to nothing. This epirit has shown itself not only in the shape of grumbling at the meetings of local bodies. It has led to action being taken in the House of Representatives to bring about the creation of separate districts. An attempt of this kind was made iastr session, and. although it was not "euccessfuF it was evident Jthat a large number of country members are quite prepared to make a determined fight in favor of a change. It is not difficult to see what the result would —be —were" any individual district successful. If the process of subdivision once commenced there is no saying where it would end, and before Jong the colony would be split up into areaai not; much Jarger than parishes. ' ! Sonte c "districts would be crushed with heavy rates, while others, would escape altogether. The question of settlement would become »btii'n- :- ing one from one end of the colony to the other, to the serious loss oft the ratepayers. That we are not at all Exaggerating toe dinger is only toe well known to those who are acquainted with what: . happened last session. When thp member for Waimate brought hit 'a u ßlilfor creating that district a separate one he was at once joined* by J the member for Stinawatu and the member for Ash burton. ; Then suggestions oh'We members all over the colony -for tfce - creation separate districts, the effect of which would have been to tear the Act to pieces had ttiey.been'agreed to. 'All , these J facts point' to the existence of a widespread feeling of dissatisfac: tion with the 'Act as it at present stands, which must end, unless successfully resisted, in the destruction of the *■ scheme ■ r ia it- ; was brfgtnalry drawn up. Wβ say destruction of the scheme, because one of its naoas essenti&T-feaiufee was the divfeidtt of the colony into large areas. If these disappear the: entire scope of ths Act will be altered.