LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 105, 6 May 1927, Page 7

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

POSITION IN NEW SOUTH

WALES

LABOUR'S EFFORT TO

DOMINATE

(From Our Own Conatpondtnt)

. . SYDNEY, 20th April. Ihe municipal councils of New South Wales, whose attitude is that the Government has sold them a pretty costly pup m tho form of the new Local Government Act, have now been asked by ttieir association to try to find out what their losses are likely to be under that measure. The losses will or course, be passed on, either in the form of reduced local services or in a reduction of municipal employees. The exemptions from rating which are provided under tho Act are a brilliant and somewhat diverting example of rush legislation at the fag end of a session. The Act incidentally patches and amends m 173 places the local government law which formerly existed, and gives to the civic bodies a charter which makes confusion worse confounded. Under the old Act, for example, a. church or other building, in order to be exempt from rating, had to be used or occupied "solely" for public worship The word "solely" has now been omitted. The exemption will, therefore, cover buildings which are used for public worship on Sundays, and which may be used for dances or other purposes on week-days. Take, again, an entirely new class of exemption from rating, applying to land which is used or occupied as a rectory, vicarage, manse or parsonage. As the Act does not requiro that the church shall own the building occupied by its clergymen, tho position, in effect, is that a landlord who can secure a reverend gentleman as a tenant can let tho council whistle for its rates, as long as it can bo shown that tho clergyman is using the house tenanted as his rectory or tho administrativo headquarters of his church. Another of tho rating exemptions which tho councils will find costly relates to schools. State public schools will continuo to pay rates. Practically all other schools as well as their playgrounds go scot free. What is worse, at least for the councils, if tho owner of a paddock alongside a school arranges for the use of it as a playground, he can claim an exemption from rating in respect to tho allotment. The Bill, under the Government lash, went through the Lower House like greased lightning, and, in its worst forms, appears to have escaped the analytical gaze even of the Legislative Council.

The wider franchise, which the councils fought to the bitter end, is also likely.to make the new Local Government Act the plaything of party politics. .The majority of the councils in the State aro at present fairly free from the political element, but that it will obtrude itself at tho civic elections next year is almost certain, now that even tho nomadic voter, wandering, like the Tartars, from place to place, can exercise the local franchise under a six months' residential qualification. It has been suggested in one quarter that, in order to defeat the Labour leagues, the councils should, as far as possible, carry on with their existing rolls under tho new Act. But the point is emphasised that nothing probably would suit the leagues better. They could simply wait patiently until the electoral list was exhibited, and then, coming with a grand rush, put in claims for enrolment in a solid mass attack, and leave out in the cold, as far as voting strength is concerned, the more lackadaisical wives and sons and daughters of those already on the roll. Labour, realising its strength under the new Act, will make a concerted attempt to dominate the sphere of local government at the next civic elections. It will thus be killing two birds with one stone. It will at the same time be keeping its organisation in good trim for tho State and Federal elections. One cannot blame- it, after all, if it takes advantage of the new legislation.