CLUTHA COUNTY COUNCIL.

Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 220, 27 September 1878, Page 3

CLUTHA COUNTY COUNCIL.

\ special meeting of tlie Clutha County Council, called by the Clerk on the instruction of thChairman, for the purpose of taking into consideration the adjustment of the boundaries of ridings and of making Inch Clutha a separat' riding (in complivnce with a request of the in habitants), was held in the Athenaeum Hall hern on Friday. There were present Messrs M'Neil (chairman), Mackenzie, Roberts, Dallas, Ayaon, Scobie, Scott, Jovvitt, and Jenkinson. ; Mr .-ID, all as suggested that the (Chairman should obtaiu the opinion of the Attorney-G-en«--ral as to whether it was necessary for the Council to appoiut a returning officer for each riding. There seemed, he said, to be a doubt upon the subject, and it would be as well to know how the law stood. The Chairman said he would obtain tho opinion before next" -meeting. Captain' Mackenzie read a resolution passed by the Waipahi Progress Committee with reference to the boundaries of ridings, which had been sent to him to lay before the meeting. The resolution was as follows:— "At a meeting of the Waipahi Progress Committee held on the, 13th of September. 1878, Ihe following resolution was carried : ' That tho Waipahi Progress Committee, seeing how objectionable and inconvenient tho alterations of the ridihgs proposed by Cr. Dallas are to the electors in this district, respectfully request the Clutha County Council to rescind the resolution of the 31st May (as suggested by the Hon. the Attorney-General to the deputation on the 7th September), and ask that the Council may be pleased to assist the electors in any notion that may be taken whereby a more equalised representation may be obtained for them, as at present they feel the great injustice under- which they are placed, ; and that copies of ■ tliis resolution be forwarded to the Chairman of the County Council and the member for Waipahi Hiding, with the request that it be read at the next meeting of the County Council.' — (Signed) W. H7S. Koberts, Chairman of the Waipahi Progress Committee." In reply t,o a question, the Chairman said he had simply called the meeting to see whether the Council would give effect to the wishes of tho settlers of Inch Clutha by declaring the island a separate riding. This was provided for in tho Inch Clutha Bill now before Parliament, but he thought there was not the slightest chauce of it being passed. . In reply to Captain Mackenzie, the Chairman said lie had had no further communication from the Attorney-General or the Government with refereuce to the boundaries or representation. In reply to M r Jenkinson, the CHAIHMAA said the meeting had been called specially to consider as to creating Inch Clutha a riding, but at the • same time it was competent to consider the boundaries and representation of ridings generally. Captain Mackenzie moved— " That, taking into consideration • the present unsatisfactory position of the boxiudaries of ridings in reference to the voter's roll ; also the isolated position of Inch Clutha, that the boundaries as at present fixed be altered so as to suit the existing rolls, and that Inch Clutha be made a separate riding, and in order to effect the above object, the motion by Mr Dallas, 31st May, altering boundaries be rescinded." Mr Scott seconded tho motion. Captain Mackenzie, in speaking to the motion, said the present position of the Council was most unsatisfactory ; matrons had got into a knot that could only be unravelled by an application to the Supreme Court, the expense of which, if his contention -was correct, would fall upon the ratepayers. The Council had applied to the Government for an extension of time to prepare rolls, but from what he learned from the AttorneyGeneral when a deputation recently waited upon him on the subject, the Government could take no action in the matter ; the County would be left to work out its own destiny. The County would thus have one set. of ridings and another set of rolls, and neither Wairuna nor tfrugh could elect a member. Ue was aware that parties were quite prepared to take the matter to the Supremo Court, but it wouVl he much better for the Council to rescind the former resolution, and refer the whole matter to the ratepayers, They could then have nine ridings with a member each. In addition to waiting upon the -Attorney-General they had laid tlio casi=s before Mr Haggitt and obtained his opinion. The following was the' case as submitted : — " On the 26th April Mr Dallas gave notice of motion for a sneeial meeting on the 3lst May to consider the boundaries of ridings. This motion never came before the Council and the Clerk called a special meeting without authority from the Chairman or other members on motion of Council sec. 79. On the 31st May the motion for alteration of boundaries was passed. It was notjpublicly notified for four, weeks that the Council intended to alter boundaries, that is. the resolution itself was not notified (sec. 80). On the 18th of June the resolutions were confirmed at a special meeting by the casting vote of the Chairman, one member opposed being absent. •On the 31st' May the Council went into Committee, and the resolutions were only passed in. Committee, .never having been- submitted to the Council. The effect of these resolutions is such that the riding is abolished, portions of other ridings are so divided by the new boundaries, it is impossible to assigu the statutory number of votes to land-holders in any new rolls without fresh valuation of pro-pt-rtios. The voters' rolls have passed the Council. The Chairman and majority have hpi plied for time (soc. 59) to mnke new rolls. The election for new members takes place in November, but can (sec 209) be extended. The Council by these resolutions profess to effect a more equitable adjustment of the representation. In fact we believe that their action has a contrary , effect. If there are any giounds for proceedings to compel the Council to revert to the old boundaries, what course must we adopt to test the legality of their proceedings, if we desire to do so before . the elections ?" Upon this Mr Haggitt' s opinion was given as follows :- " The- Council has power, under section 36 of the Counties Act,. 1876, to alter the number of the ridings within the Count} 7 and the names ef boundaries thereof, subject only to the condition that the members of ridings shall not be more that nine (9). " The power can only be exercised by special order, and the mode in which . a power to do anything by ' special order ' can alone be exercised is pointed out in section SO. The first step •to be taken in order to the obtaining of a valid ' special - order' is that the resolution to do> what is pro posed to be effected shall be adopted at a special meeting as contained in section 79 of -".the. Act,, and iinlfcss the meeting is convened either upon a resolution of the Council or upon a requisition signed in writing, signed by the Chairman or any three councillors, and complying itf other ' respects with sec. .79, it is not in my opinion a valid special meeting so as to have the power to legally .initiate steps .towards obtaining a special orfler. The resolution adopted at such special meeting must be published in some newspaper circulating, in the County, or if there is no such newspaper there printed, placards containing, such, noticemust be affixed' at 'public' places in the County (see sub-section 3 of section 80 and interpretation ciau.se). If, therefore,- as it is stated in -the case' submitted for my opinion, the Clerk called a j meeting, without, any resolution of the Council and without a proper requisition, the meeting was not a valid special meeting, and if the leso- ■ lution adopted at such meeting was riot published as required, by sub-section 3 of section 80 the whole proceedings are irregular, and no • valid ..special order- has been made. The only course which 1 can suggest in order to test the legality s of . the. proceedings before the elections is to move in the Supreme Court f pv a wile nisi for. a certiorari to, bring up the resolntion of the County Council to be quashed. TJ.pon the. argument of 'this, rule the whole of the question- involved canbe raised and argued." • Captain 'Mackenzie, said; that, so far as he j could, gather it, the opinion of the "AttorneyGeneral was similar to that given by Mr Haggitt; In reply. to.Mr Jowitt,* "'" * Captain' Mackenzie explained, that the deputation that .waited, upon the Attorney-General was not one representing, the Council; it represented .the -members ipKthe r dep,utatioij;",or.- he 'might say a majority of the ratepayers of the ; County.. . He reiterated his arguments in favour,, of the motion, and pointed out that there were t many things connected with- Inch 'Clutha ypoinbf; ing to the necessity for'it being nSacte a; separate, riding. ' ■'.' ~ t .';^ A - ' -M-.i^^i^'ri^i-. :■-..* Ji "Mr DALLAS' pointed crtit ; = tnkt :< tlie " motion; was pot in order,, as no resolution ; : co}UdVbereBcirtded py merely cabling a /'BpewaTJ mating. .. It-re-

quired notice. He a'so said he had been informed that the law officers of the Crown had 2:iven their ouinion that the time for making up the rolls could be extended, and this had actually been done in the cose of the Borough, of Balclutha. ■ The O.iatrman said the former resolution could oniv i»ft rescinded upon the unanimous vote of the members. Mr Jowitt had no doubt every Councillor would profess openly that lie had acted solely for the good of the County at large. He (Mr Jowitt) could say that in the past he had done bo to the hest nf his ability. As to the contention regarding the boundaries of ridings, he thought the matte* 1 should be allowed to go before the rater d i ym-s in its present shape. But for the interference of the up-country members he had no doubt the time for making up the rolls would have been extended, :md if any of the ratepayers were to be disfranchised they would only have to thank for it those who professed to be their friends. As to the legality of the meeting of 3lst May, it had never been proved that the Chairman hail not given the Clerk instructions to call the meeting, and until that was proved ha would hold that the meeting was regular. The resolution of Slsfc May was passed by the Council, and not only in Committee, and the resolution was pub'icly notified us required by* law. In these and* other matters the case submitted to Mr ETaggitfc was in error, and therefore the opinion .van valueless. He asked what was the aith of the present agitation, and whence did it originate. He maintained that the sole object was to receive a preponderance of voting posver for the up-country districts. He held that the Council had acted legally in the matter of the alteration of boundaries, and he hoped the opposition would now withdraw, as they could yefe eraoefullv do from their present position. Mr J bkktnmon agreed very much wifch the remarks made by Mr Jowitt. He believed, however, that the "natter of the boundaries were in an. unsatisfactory position, and suggested that a committee should be appointed to examine into the whole matter, and report at a future meeting Mi ScOßirc replied to several of the previous speakers. He contended that the Act itself provid°d for preparing rolls, and when suoh was the case the Government would not interfere. The case laid before Mr Hairgitt was prepared from certified extracts of the. minutes, and therefore ought to be correct. He pointed out that the great majority of the ratepayers had expressed their dissatisfaction with the- alteration that had been made in the boundaries, and contended that the resolution should be rescinded and the whole matter referred to the electors at the ensuing general election. The Chairman pointed out that if the At-torney-General had given the opinion Captain Mackenzie said he had ■'one, namely, that the Government hod no power to exterfd the time for preparing the rolls, then the Government had acted illegally in the matter of the Balclutha rolls, the time for making up which had been, extended. TTe quite agreed that if tho time were not extended Wai rnna and Brugh would be disfranchised, ■ ut the electors would know who to blame for this ; but the Government had not informed him they did not intend to extend the time as had bean done in similar cases After some further discussion, the motion was put, with the following result : — Ayes — Messrs Mackenzie, Scobio. Roberts, aid Scott. NoesMessrs Jowitt, Jenkinson, Dallas, Ayson, and the Chairman. The motion was therefore nptratived. Mr Dallas then i-ose to move a resolution altering the boundaries. Captain Mackenzie objected, and some warm discussion ensued, in the course of which it appeared that the Clerk had also received a written request by Captain Mackenzie and two other Councillors to call the meeting for the same object as that named in tho Chairman's request. The discussion euded by Captain Mackenzie and Messrs "Roberts, Scohie, and leaving tho meeting. The Council then adjourned for luncheon. _ Upon resuming, thore were present the Chairman, and Messrs. Dallas, Jenkinson, Jowitt, and Ayson. Mr Dallas then moved his resolution, altering the boundaries of ridings. (Tho resolution will be found in our second page.) Mr Dallas fully explained tho nature of the alterations he proposed, and their effect in equalising the area and valuation of ridings, the number of electors. &c, &c. Mr JkKKINSOJT seconded the resolution, which, he considered would effect a great improvement upon the boundaries. He had heard great complaints regarding tho township of Clinton being able to swamp the n'luntry votes in that riding. As the riding would now be divided, this would be remedied. Mr Ayson had no doubt the alteration would be regarded as a gr?at improvement, but he would have liked to have seen Inch Clutha created a separate riding. Mr Jowitt said it was a great pity the upcountrv members had wilfully absented themselves.from their duties. Still he was not to be deterred from" doing what he considered to be his duty. He could not conceive how the upcountry members would be able to explain thoir conduct to their constituents. He was at one time favorable to an adjournment of tho meeting, so that an amicable arrangement might be attempted, but the standing orders would nofc allow of this: He hoped all the ratepayers would see that the Council had 'acted fairly in the matter.' and' with the sole desire of- bringing about an equitable adjustment of the boundaries and representation of-the ridings. . The Chaibman was glad that Richardson Biding was restored to its. former position. He did not know that the alterations would suit the ideas of the Waipahi Progress Committee, but he believed the ratepayers generally would acknowledge their justness Me- Dallas, in reply, said he too would have liked that Inch Clutha'had been made a separate riding, but unless the Government extended the time for making up the rolls, the formation of. the new riding would have the. effect of disfranchising the whole electors of the island. It therefore would not be wise to risk it. He had only to assert most emphatically that if any of the electors in any portion of the County were disfranchised, it would only be through the action of the up-country members and their progress committees. The resolution wa3 carried unanimously. . •■ Mr Dallas then moved that the representa* tiou of the ridings be as follows : — Waipahi 1, . Wairuna 1, Clyrlevale 1, Clinton 1 , Pamahaka 1, Richardson 2. South Molyneux 2. Seconded by Mr Jowitt, and carried. Mr Dallas moved, <: Thar, a special meeting to confirm the. foregoing resolutions be held that day four weeks." Seconded by Mr Jknktnson, and carried. . . The rn.eet.iug then adjourned.