DEFECTIVE LEGISLATION.

Evening Star, Issue 5968, 28 April 1882, Page 1

DEFECTIVE LEGISLATION.

The new Parliament will no doubt find its work cut out, what with the settlement of local finance on a satisfactory basis, the elaboration of a scheme of public works, the everlasting Native question, and the amendment of the bankruptcy laws; but we may hope that the Government will find it convenient to direct their attention to very serious defects in certain practical statutes which more ,or less urgently require amendment. The legislation of the last few sessions was not only very hurried, but in regard to Bills of social rather than directly political significance enthusiasts and crucial reformers were allowed altogether too much their own way, with the result that the public find themselves interfered with and harassed by penal enactments, the object of which .excites no general sympathy, but which, on the contrary, are not in accord with the spirit of the age. > Experience has proved, for instance,. that the people care naught for the supposed privileges of local option as applied to the liquor traded and the onJy praotical consequence of the poils nbfr in course of being* token wiQ v present licensees will besecured lot at least three, years in a lucrative monopoly and in localities where there iff little or no competition may be trusted to make . hay while the, Sun shines, by vending the cheapest procurable in theishape of liqudf.i The principle appears to’have been introduced into the Licensing Act a cbxhplete misconception of popular Reeling on the subject* and the sOonerit is excised, for many reasons, the better. The same Act is most defective in matters of administrative detail* The- licensing districts with a few exceptions, such as are too small, whilst the machinery of the election of Incensing Committees and for taking the local option polls is very expensive, - and altogether unnecessarily so, constituting indeed a heavy tax on the end country. We would suggest? that one of our new membra should, take an early opportunity pf moving in the House for a complete return of the expenditure on the recant elections and polls.under the. Licensing Act, The information can be easily obtained through ihe returning officers, and will, we fancy, somewhat open the eyes of the public to one "practical effect of the weill-intehtioned Attempt to make temperate by Act of Parliament ' Thbnwb have the Gamingand Lotteries Act—a measure excellent in principle and original in design, but So* mauled and bemuddled m its passage- through the legislature that it is “ neither fish, “flesh, nor good redrherring.” The object is to suppress (gambling in every form, but you are specifically allowed to gamble to ahy ?mpunt provided >tha| tbpvito is mdujgsd » for the benefit of rating blabs. . 'Half* crown are put dbwn undbr this statute by the strong am of the law, but you may invest any sum olmoney from IQsiupwards in eonsulteiions; whilst 'at bazaars the , wheel goes meryily rpujid by the.sjpcqial permission of the. Colonial Secretary. The bookmakers are in no respect' touched by the Act, and carry bn their little games as openly and noisily as ever. What, then, has thiS Act effected in the interests df public morality 1 Absolutely nothing, except to cause several gentlemen to be fined, and to cause police officers r all over the Colony to gnash their teeth at being provided with such “a ship without guns” to put . down they are well aware are atouming in this Colony a very setions complexion. Take another highly moral piepe of legislation—-the rupt Practices Act. Under this Draconic statute one man certainly may steal s horse, whilst another dare not lock over the will; but conviction for most trivial offences carries, .with it penal consequences altogether 'disproportionate—witness, for instance, the case of Mr Pillibt, who was elected for Stanmore, and will lose his seat, and be liable to all sorts of pains and penalties, because an elector was employed as secretary to his committee on a rather obscure promise of remuneration. Then again, B, a candidate who has no carriage-friends, must get his supporters to the poll as best he may, although in country districts, there may be miles to travel; whilst C, who is wealthy, and belongs to the colonial upper ten, ha?} bis supporters conveyed to the booths in his own and his friends’ private *carriages This prohibition of expenditure for the purpose of bringing electors to the poll is open to grave abuse. A single cab fire be paid, but there is nothing to prevent a rich candidate, say in Dunedin, buying up the stock-in-trade of all the liyeiy jteble keepers in the city the day before the poll and selling it- back again tile day after; having the usafract, m the Meantime, for electioneering purposes. The Act is, farther, very'defective in the definiticn fp^ti<^;declaim to be “ orillegal^'f as was by which - have been in Election PetittonaUquSrto • ’ . indepjmfebtly latioDj which needs moduy ■ flo#n), and >

lieve the schools of the large percentage of so-called scholars who, it seems clear from the reports and statistics, are not of an age to derive any advantage from the instruction sought to be imparted. A national saving would thus be effected in the expenditure on primary education generally, and the teachers would be relieved from much vexation and be able to devote much time and energy to the pupils who are competent to learn. The machinery for the election of Education Boards and School Committees urgently requires revision. The constitution of these bodies under present arrangements is not fairly representive, and in regard to the Boards it is notorious that the sitting memb3rs can so manipulate the Committees as to secure re-elections. All Committees having an equal voice in the election of members of the Board is a gross anomaly. The vote of Dunedin, for instance, may be neutralised by that of St. Leonards. The Boards should certainly be elected either by the ratepayers in town and country, or by the. persons whose names are on the electoral rolls within each education district. Another Act which requires revision is the Registration Act. There is not sufficient provision against stuffing the rolls immediately previous to the issue of the writ for any electoral district. If the registrar, having received an application from any person to have his name placed on the roll, is personally satisfied that the claim is valid, it becomes his duty to add such name on the expiration of fifteen days; and until the name thus appears on the roll no outsider has the opportunity of making an objection, Presuming, however, that names are added and action is taken forthwith, the objection, if valid, cannot be susstained and such names erased until the expiration of at least three weeks; since fifteen days’ notice has in the first instance to be given to the person objected to, and then, if he does not voluntarily cause his own name to be erased, the objector must apply for a summons in the Resident Magistrate’s Court, and after the hearing of the case it is for the presiding magistrate to determine whether the name shall be erased. It may easily be conceived that at any time when politics ran high additions might be made to the rolls of any numbers of new arrivals, foreigners, or persons otherwise not qualified as electors, and the names, even if objected to, could . not in many cases be erased before the election, A very simple remedy sug-

gests itself, namely, that provision should be made in an Amendment Act ,i» to the effect that every person oh send--0 Ing in a claim to be placed on the roll should declare himself to. be o£ full age and that he is a British subject, and that a false declaration should render the offender liable to severe penal con- . sequences, not merely a money fine. There is beyond doubt abundant scope for honest energy and work on • the part of the new inembers of the House without their troubling therh-

jselves to invent new constitutions to alter the principles of land, or attempt 11 1 the impossible by bringing in Bills to ; v settle the relations between capital and labor. Dunedin has decidedly been experimental in the choice of represen- : tatives. It is to be hoped that the experiment may prove more successful than recent events induce us to anticipate. ,