THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 865, 10 August 1867, Page 4

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

(Prom the "Advertiser," July 31.)

The Local Government Bill is now before the public, and the first step in a course tending to the consolidation of the country • has been taken. A Bill of four hundred and odd clauses will take some time to digest, but the great features of it may be very shortly described for the benefit of those whose leisure or whose acquaintance with legal phraseology is not sufficient to enable them to sift the kernels out for themselves. "Without hastily committing ourselves to a general opinion on the adequacy of the measure, it is plain on a very hasty perusal that the circumstances and local legislation of the various parts of the country have be carefully studied, and great pains and ingenuity used to adopt existing facts into the machinery". Every existing Road Board iri the country may take advantage of the measure. Upon petition of a small number of rate-payers, unopposed by a counter petition from as large or a larger number, the Governor in Council may bring any existing district within the Act. Its existing Board and machinery continues until the next election to be the Board and machinery under the Act, when the provisions supplied by the Act replace them. .New districts may be constituted similarly on petition of the inhabitants. Provision is made for combining .several districts, and also for subdivision. When a district, either simple or compounded of several smaller districts, has an area of sixty square miles, and a certain amount of rateable property, it may be constituted a county. The counties are to have constitutions similar to those of the Eoad Districts, but to possess additional powers of establishing markets, borrowing on special rates, &c. The Boards are elected from and by the roll of rate payers, and the qualification of an elector is, for one vote, rateable property under £100 value, for two votes above £100 and under £300, for three votes above £300. The powers of making byelaws are not extensive, but the Act is, we are informed, to be supplemented by Police and Public Health BDls, applicable to the use of municipalities, districts, and counties.

The part of the proposals which will doubtless attract most immediate attention is that which refers to revenues and endowments. The first source is the rates imposed within the district. The Colonial Treasurer is, in the secoud place, ordered to meet this by a contribution of two shillings, from the public revenue, to one derived from rates, provided that for this purpose the rate must not exceed one shilling in the pound, annual value. A further revenue is to \>e an endowment from the land fund arising within the district, in a proportion varying inversely with the quantity of land unsold within the district ; that is to say, when three-fourths of the land has been sold, 30 per cent, of the land fund is to be paid over for the district to administer : when fom three-fourths to a half is sold, the proportion is to be 25 per cent., when less than a half 20 per cent. The endowment from land fund is, however, to be a special fund dedicated to the construction and maintenance of main roads, and the Superintendent is charged with authority to see that it is so applied. Tolls may also be levied on roads and at ferries, those on ordinary roads are available for general use by the district or county board ; tolls on main roads to be specially devoted to their maintenance. Existing tolls are preserved in the Bill. Powers are given to take land for permanent works, subject to the provisions of the Land Clauses Consolidation Act, and with a power of appeal also to the Superintendent in case of objections. There are also powers to open and close roads, and to dispose of old roads. In case of a county seeking to exercise its borrowing privilege it is required to provide a special rate from the proceeds of which the loan may be repaid. ' These are the most interesting of a vast number of provisions which have been elaborately prepared to meet every exigency. The jßill contains all proper constitutional checks on the expenditure in the way of accounts and audit, and the electoral machinery is very complete. The foundation of this elaborate piece of drafting is, we believe, to be seen in the legislation of the Canadian Parliament, which has spent much time over a long series of years in perfecting this part of the Constitution of the country. The work is, however, no. mere, reprint, but very carefully adapted to our own wants.