Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 25, 1910.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 21, 25 July 1910, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 25, 1910.

MUNICIPAL RIGHTS IN PERIL.

A Government which started four years ago with much excellent promise, and some good performance, seems to be rapidly degenerating into a Government without convictions and without backbone. The two most urgent of the big questions which must be tackled during the present session are land and defence. Not merely are these questions urgent and important, but the " certainty that they would have to be faced this session has been obvious for months past. The land question was before the House lastyear, and was allowed to staud over from a short and crowded session in order that it might be dealt with now. The necessity for radical amendments of the Defence Act has been known to everybody ever sine© the publication of Lord Kitchener's report early in March last. Yet on both these subjects the intentions of the Government are still uncertain, and their land policy remains 1 an absolute blank. Other matters could be mentioned in which Ministers seem to be "waiting for something to turn up," waiting for convictions which they are sure will be popular. In contrast with this pusillanimous indecision isT'the frank and reckless despotism of the Tramways Act Amendment Bill, which was circulated on Friday. The scheme of the measure is not a new one. Similar Bills have been introduced more than once before by the present Government, and in so doing it was merely following the lead of its predecessor. But the strange thing is that with all its weakening on essential points which should have allowed men with democratic convictions and with the courage of them no room for hesitation at all, the Ward Government should still remain true to this despotic legacy, which seems to bo equally out of keeping with its virtues and its vices. The immense and almost unchecked power which was for years wielded by the Seddon Government naturally led to perpetual interference with the lights of subordinate or independent authorities. But/ that its much feebler successor, which often lacks t-hd courage to assert itself with power and dignity in its own proper sphere, should desire to step beyond that sphere and usurp a bureaucratic power which there is no call for it to exercise is a paradox and a marvel. What is to become of local government if the Tramways xlct Amendment Bill is passed, and its principle pushed to a logical conclusion? The effect can only be to emasculate the power of local government and to reduce its privileges and its responsibilities to a shadow. If a municipal corporation is not competent to select its own motormen, which of the multifarious functions with which it is at present entrusted is it 'fitted to discharge ? On and after the Ist January, 1912, if this Bill goes through, nobody shall be employed as the driver of any carriage on a tramway of which electricity is the motive power unless he holds a certificate issued by tho Board of Examiners appointed , under the Inspection of Machinery Act. An exception is made of drivers who can satisfy the Board not later than the 30th June, 1911, that for at least a year before the passing of the Bill they have been employed as motormen, or held motormen's licenses under some by-law made by a local authority. As with the drivers, so with the rolling-stock, plant, appliances, and machinery. Municipal control is to be entirely superseded by the control of the Government. The Minister of Public Works "may from time to time authorise any proper person to inspect any tramway, whether in the course of construction or open for traffio," and the rolling-stock and everything else used, or to be used, in connection with the tramway. On the report of this person — it is some consolation to know that he must be a "proper" one — the Minister may issue an order for the carrying out of such alterations, repairs, or additions as may be covered by the report. Non-compliance with any such order will subject the proprietors of the tramway to a fine, not exceeding £20, for every day during which the default continues. This power on the part of the Minister is, it should be particularly noted, not confined to provisions for ensuring the safety of the public or the tramway employees. Whatever is con- j sidered necessary "to meet the reasonable requirements of the traffic" may form the subject of such an order. The marginal note "Regulations" calls one's attention to the fact that Clause 5 confers upon the Government by d?der in Council the power to meddle with nearly every detail that has not been sufficiently covered by the far-reaching provisions already cited. These regulations may prescribe among other things "the maximum number of passengers that may be carried on any carriage on any particular route or grade" and "the limit of speed at which any carriage may travel on any particular route or grade." As a corollary to this extension of the powers of the Government the provisions of the Tramways Act which empower tho local authority to deal with these matters are expressly repealed. The regulation of btopping-places and time-tables is Btill left as a matter of local jurisdiction, and the local authority may still paint its care ns it pleases. Contemplating these serious exceptions from the absolute power which he is otherwise claiming for his Department, Mr. Roderick M'Kenzie may well feel astonished at his own moderation. If ho is to have power to see that municipal tramways <u:e to be eubject to

inspection and control by persons of the right colour, why should he not be empowered to insist that the cars shall be of the right colour too? This unprincipled limitation of the Ministerial autocracy which the Bill proposes is surely an oversight, which the Minister may be expected to rectify in committee. For our part, the tyranny already goes so far — and there are other points than those already mentioned for which we have no room to deal in this article — that we would as soon see it go a little further. There is something to be said for local control in these matters, and something for a central bureaucracy which will make municipal government a mere branch of the Public Works Department. But the dual control which the Bill proposes is an insult to all the local authorities of the country, without reducing them to the absolute impotence required for the smooth and effective working of the scheme. After all, we have perhaps given the Government undue credit for thoroughness in the opening of this article. The tyranny which it displays in this Bill is almost as halfhearted as its democracy in so many other matters.