NEW BILLS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3137, 18 July 1881, Page 3

NEW BILLS.

Local Seef-Government Act, 1881. — (Sir G. Grey). This Bill is intituled an Act to provide for the establishment of a better system of Local Self-Government in New Zealand. It is provided that the Governor shall, as soon as conveniently may be after the passing of this Act, by proclamation, create and define the limits of local districts ■within the Islands of New Zealand, and each of such district so proclaimed shall contain a certain number of counties. For each of the said districts established there shall be a President and a Council proclaimed by the Governor. Before the issue of 'Writs for the first election of members of the Council, persons qualified to elect members of the Council shall elect a president of such Council; • and every such president shall hold his office until the election of his successor in similar manner : Provided that it shall be lawful for the Governor, by proclamation, to constitute electoral districts for the election of members of Council, and of the President, to appoint and declare the number of members to be elected for each such district, and to mate provision for registration and revision of lists of electors, and appointing returning officers for issuing and returning necessary writs, for taking the poll, and for determining the validity of all disputed returns, and otherwise for insuring the effective conduct of elections. In determining the number and extent of electoral districts, and the number of members to be elected for each district, regard shall be had to the number of electors within the same, so that the number of members to be assigned to any one electoral district may bear to the whole number of the members of the said Council, as nearly as may be, the same proportion as the number of inhabitants within such electoral districts shall bear to the whole number of inhabitants within the limits of the district. Every person who shall be legally qualified as an elector to vote for the election of members of the House of Representatives shall be qualified to be elected President of any district, or member of Council.

It shall be lawful for the President and Council of leach [district to make by-laws (except and subject as may bo hereinafter mentioned) for the peace, order, and good government of such district, provided that the same be not repugnant to the law of England. It shall not be lawful for the President and Council of any district to make by-laws for any of the purposes hereinafter mentioned:—

(1.) The imposition or regulation of duties of Customs to be imposed on the importation or exportation of any goods (2.) The imposition of any dues or other charges on shipping. (3.) The erection and maintenance of light-houses and beacons on the coast. (4.) Regulating the Post Office and carriage of letters, or the establishment, management, or maintenance of telegraph lines :

(5.) Eegulating the weights and measures to be used in the district. (6.) Eegulating any of the current coin, or the issue of any bills, notes, or other paper currency. (7.) Establishing, altering, or repealing laws relating to bankruptcy or insolvency (8.) Eegulating the course of inheritance of real and personal property, or affecting the law relating to wills. (9.) Eegulating the law relating to marriages, or matrimonial causes, or the registration of births, deaths,j and marriages. (10.) Eegulating primary education. (11.) Imposing any disabilities or restrictions on persons of the native race to which persons of European birth or descent would not also bo subject: (12.) Establishing or providing for the maintenance, management, and movement of any force other than Volunteers raised for the purpose of internal or external defence against an enemy. (13.) Affecting lands of tho Crown, except for making regulations for mining purposes, or affecting lands to which the title of tho aboriginal owners has never been extinguished : (14.) The establishment or abolition of any Court of judicature of civil or criminal jurisdiction : Except that the said several Presidents of Councils are hereby empowered to create, constitute, and abolish, within tho said districts. — (a.) Tribunals of judicature inferior to the Supreme Court, with, as may be deemed expedient, such civil jurisdiction, limited or extended as may by by-laws bo defined by the said President and Council. (b.) Tribunals of summary and extended criminal jurisdiction, respectively defined as aforesaid, and having respec-

tively cognizance of all offences punishable summarily and also any offences indictable, except capital offences. It shall bo lawful for the said several Presidents and Councils to make by-laws relating to tho appointment and salaries of fit and proper judicial officers, being barristers or solicitors of tho Supreme Court, to preside over the said tribunals ; and also to make and alter by-laws relating to the appointment and remuneration of other qualified persons to be officers of tho said tribunals, and to the practice and procedure therein, the right of appeal from the decisions, and otherwise howsoever as may from time to time be necessary and proper for giving effect to and cai-i-yini* into execution the powers relating to civil and criminal tribunals. Every Council shall at their first meeting, before proceeding to the despatch of any other business, elect one of their members to be chairman thereof during the continuance of such Council, and who shall preside at the meetings of such Council. No Council shall be competent to the despatch of any business unless onethird of the whole number of members be present. The President may transmit to the Council, for consideration, drafts of by-laws as may appear to him desirable to introduce. Every by-law passed by the Council shall bo presented to the President for his assent, and he shall declare, according to his discretion, that he assents to such by-law, or that he refuses his assent to such by-law. Or he may, before declaring his pleasure in regard to any such by-law, make such amendments therein as he thinks needful oxexpedient, and by message return such bylaw, with such amendments to the Council ; and the consideration of such amendments by the Council shall thereupon take place. Whenever any by-law shall have been assented by the President, he shall forthwith transmit an authentic copy thereof to the Governor. The President and Council of each of the several districts established under this Act may from time to time, by by-laws to be passed for that purpose, establish new electoral districts, alter or abolish electoral districts, alter and appoint the number of members to be chosen for such district, increase or diminish the num ber of members for each district, alter and regulate the appointment of Returning Officers; and generally make provision for regulating the election of the President and members of such Council, for the final determination of contested elections, the alteration or abolition of the form of local self-government established by this Act, and for the substitution of any other form or forms of local selfgovernment in lieu thereof : Provided that in by-laws made for the foregoing purposes, there shall be no provision repugnant to this Act. All laws in force at the time of its establishment within any district constituted under this Act shall remain in force in the said district, subject, however to the provisions of this Act, and to the alteration or repeal of such laws by any bylaws made by the President and Council of the said district, in so far as they are empowered by this Act, until such alteration or repeal, all powers vested by the laws aforesaid in the Governor, or Governor in Council, shall be exercised by the President of the district. After all the revenue arising from taxes, duties, rates, and imposts levied in virtue of any Act of the General Assembly, and from disposal of waste lands of the Crown, shall have been appropriated to specific "purposes by any Act of the General Assembly, the surplus of such revenue which shall not be so appropi-iated shall be divided among the several districts established by this Act, in the like proportion as the population of each of the said districts bears to the population of the whole of New Zealand. The Governor shall grant to each of the said districts waste lands jof the Crown as endowments, with power to lease the same, such endowments to be of such an area and value as may yield sufficient funds to provide for each district all requisites for the trade and commerce thereof, and for securing its welfare, and the comfort, health, J and advancement in knowledge of the people, i such endowments to be from time to time applied as far as possible in lieu of and to avoid the imposition of rates and taxes.