The Star. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1881.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 77, 5 January 1881, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1881.

WAIMATE ROAD DISTRICT.

The General Assembly in 1877 passed an amending Act of the Taranaki Roads and Bridges' Ordinance of 1858, which decides the County Council of the county within which a road district is to be constituted, shall be empowered to carry into efleeiiHry of the duties in respect to roads and bridges, which under the old ordidance devolved upon the Superintendent of the province. According to the Taranaki Act of 1858, one of the duties of the Superintendent was to appoint road districts by notice published in the Government GaygtOßofJche province. By the 1877 Aotthe Movincial Gazette is defined as " any newspaper circulating in the ' Provincial District of Taranaki." After such a district \r& been proclaimed, the Act of 1858 decides that the expenditure of all monies raised or payable under that Ordinance for the maintenance of roads or "taqdgeß shall be under the control of a boam-^jt road commissioners, to be elected .b3r*-«eperal meeting of occupiers or owners of land •wjthin the newly constituted district, to belaid in June in each year. Such^meg.ting shall- eXso appoint jtvo- waSitonrto audit the expenditure. But in the e^ent of a general meeting "not, having been\ e id i n June, the Superintend , dent (i.e., th* County Council) may api point not lesf^atL lu^e~roa4~<jpnHnissioners. Aftf.-a, board of commissioners

has been thus appointed, the clerk shall prepare a roll of district electors showing the number of votes to which each elector is entitled, owners of rateable property on the valuation roll of more than £5 and less than £B0 being allowed one vote ; from £30 up to £60, two votes ; from .£6O up to £100, three votes ; from £100 up to £200, four votes ; at £300 and upwards, i five votes at the annual elections. For the purposes of first general meetings under the old Act of 1858, every person who is entitled to vote at an election of County Councillors within the district will be allowed to vote for the election of road commissioners. This provision, however, would appear to be imperative except during the month of June, owing to section 6 in the Act of 1858, which decides that general meetings must be held in June (originally in May), and makes no provision for a first general meeting at any other time of year ; and also to section 15, which sets forth that if no general meeting shall have been held the Superintendent (i.e., the County Council) shall appoint commissioners. The several Acts with their amendments are sufficiently complicated to provide employment for a whole army of lawyers if any captious person chose to dispute the validity of any proceedings taken by a newly constituted board. Under the old Provincial Act the Superintendent had a convenient power placed in his hands, enabling him to decide the validity of any proceedings at general meetings re elections, rates imposed, &c; but the clause has been since repealed. It is worthy of notice, however, that under the Act no general meeting is held to be formal at which less than ten electors are present, and consequently it is to be hoped that at the first meeting. of Waimate settlers to be held in Hawera at 4 p.m. to-day, at least that number will "roll up." The whole of the complications which we have referred to, arise froni the unfortunate insertion into the Counties Act of a clause by which " any part of an outlying district may be constituted a road district under any law for the time being in force for the constitution of road districts."

The course of procedure for the meeting to be held at the Egmont Hotel today would appear to be simple enough. The electors present have, if our reading of the Act is correct, simply to petition the County Council to declare that section of the Patea county which lies to the north of the Waingongoro, a road district within the meaning of the Act ; and also either to ask the council to convene an informal general meeting to elect commissioners ; or if the attendance at today's meeting is sufficiently numerous, to forward to the council the names of any persons whom the settlers might desire to have appoint d to represent them during the next five months.

It might be Tvortii while for the conveners <jfi\\e> Hawera meeting to telegraph to the Chairman of the County Council, requesting that to-day's sitting of the council should not adjourn until after five p.m., by which hour the result of the meeting, and the petition to declare a new road district, could be telegraphed to Patea, and at once decided upon by the council. Time is a great object with some of the deferred payment land owners, and it is to be regretted that the public meeting at Hawera was not held a day or two sooner. If any definite action is to be taken to-day, the meeting must come off punctually at 4 p.m.