THE MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 395, 3 August 1877, Page 2

THE MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE.

[By Telegraph.] Wellington, August 2. At the Conference <>f Municipal Delegates to-day, Mr. Standish moved, "That the Government be asked to postpone tho passing of the Charitable Institutions Bill until Tuesday, in order that the suggestions of the Conference on the matter bo laid before Parliament, and if approved of, be embodied in the Bill." Carried unanimously. Moved by Mr. Standish, "That tho Chairman write and request tho Government to be good enough to inform this Conference upon what basis of calculation pro rata deduction for maintenance of charitable institutions and hospitals out of subsidies payable to Municipal Corporations have been made, and arc intended to be made for tho future, and whether subsidies payable to County Councils and Road Boards have been, and will bo, liable to the same deductions." Carried unanimously. Mr. Reynolds considered clause 3 of the Bill a direct violation of the Abolition Act of last session, and urged that tho Conference should insist on those principles being maintained, as. otherwise, the Provincial Governments would have been abolished on false pretences. The subject then dropped, and after some cursory discussion the Conference went formally into Committee on tho Municipal Corporations Act, which, it was agreed, required several important amendments. It was resolved, on the motion of Mr. Standish, to recommend that Clause 11 bo amended, by empowering a Resident Magistrate to exercise any jurisdiction exercisable under the Act by two Justices of the Peace. It was recommended that Clause 345 bo repealed. It was also agreed that the Conference recommend that the number of residents required for a district to be formed into a Borough should be iOO instead of 150, aa required by Clause 17, provided that tho new Borough should be not less than five miles distant from an existing one ; also that the number of signatures required to be attached to a petition for such Borough to be constituted should be 50 instead of 100. On the motion of Mr. Hutchison, it was resolved that the opinion of the

Attornt-y-Gimnri l>e taken as to whether *to take lands outside Boroughs for drainage purposes. °Oii the motion of Mr. Steward, it was resolved to seek legislative provision, exempting receipts given by Muncipalities from stamp duty. A te-legiam was received from the Invercaruill 3lunieipal Council, asking the Conference to recommend that power be riven to levy a general rate of 2s. in the £ instead of Is., being the limit at present. The proposal elicited much discussion, but the majority of the Conference was decidedly against the proposal, which, on being put, was rejected. Other matters were touched on, several notices of motion given, and the Conference adjourned.