THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1897.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10901, 7 September 1897, Page 2

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1897.

I_ is not likely that the Local Government If ill introduced by the Government in 1595 Avill' be 'seriously taken up .during the approaching session, for the : reception it has received from persons qualified to judge has shown that they consider many of its proposals tantamount to a leap in the dark. ■•- *It is, however, more than probable that the Government will a measure more calculated to please their supporters. The Progressive : Liberal Association of Christchurch has commenced an agitation for the extension of the municipal franchise,'and it may be assumed that the Government will "be' asked, and will consent, to introduce a Bill with that object. The association- is nowcirculating a pamphlet showing the numbers of ratepayers in Christchurch as a typical instance. There are 2461 voters with 4249 votes, and these are» contrasted with the. 9290 adults shown by the census of last year to reside in the city? \lt is easy to place such numbers in contrast, but that opera- i tion does not show that the non-1 ratepayers suffer any injustice by the control of municipal matters by j those whose. ■ money and property are at stake. Ratepayers are not* likely to do anything calculated to injure j the civic interest, while there is the strongest ground for believing that, if I the roll were swamped with non-rate-payers, they might launch into expensive public works,- leaving others saddled with the cost. The Local Government Bill did not go so far as the new proposal to confer the municipal franchise on every adult resident. It proposed to create an electoral body, consisting of:'

(1) Occupying owners of freehold to the value of £25, or (2) Occupiers of any rateable property urnJer a tenancy of not; less than three months, or . (3) Householder of 12 months' standing under anj- tenancy, or (4) Holders of miners' rights. Even this was going too far so long as the revenues of boroughs are largely derived from taxation on real property, though Are concede that some modification of the plural system of voting is desirable. An analysis of the burgess list of Christ- : church shows that there are 1497 persons with one vote, 494 with two, 192 with three, 202 with four, and 76 with five. It is thus possible for the large propertyholders to resist any effort of the small owners to construct public works, and the limit might properly be lower than five voles, but to confer the franchise on every adult unconditionally as to residence or standing would be to sweep away the greatest landmarks of municipal life and introduce to civic affairs an element of which a considerable portion .would be undesirable in that connection. It is contended that it is unjust to withhold the municipal franchise from any adult after bestowing the universal parliamentary fran-,

chise,- but the matters to be considered are nob parallel, and- it is even questionable whether the success of universal suffrage, as shown by the quality of the new element in politics, can be fairly cited in support of a similar extension of the municipal franchise. It is usual to quote the great and undeniable success of municipal collectivism in Glasgow and other large cities, where almost everything that can be is municipalised; but, as we pointed out on Saturday when referring to the subject, in Scotland portion of the rates is paid by the owner and portion by the occupier. We note for instance that in Edinburgh last year the total burden of taxation, imperial'and. local, was 5s 2|d in the pound on the gross rental, and of this 3s 4|d was paid by the occupier and Is lOd by the owner, the principle being that the owner contributes to that which is imperial or general in its character and the occupier to that which is local. But as far as we are aware those who are clamouring for an extended municipal franchise recognise no obligation in return save that of residence, and such a demand is absurd. It is all very well to contend, as is contended in the pamphlet before us, that " every citizen—man and woman alike—is closely concerned in the maintenance of the public health; in the state of the roads and footways; in the drainage details; in all the little amenities that tend to the conservation and steady improvement of a place; in the dealing with unwholesome meat or milk;.: in the suppression of adulteration,- and in those larger questions,,such as tramways, gasworks, municipal premises, and so forth." That is no doubt true, but it is not any more applicable to those who pay no rates than to those who do. There is surely no hardship in-insisting that a person shall give some assurance that he is not a mere bird ■of, passage, which he can do;at present by simply taking a I six. months' lease. It seems to be I assumed that the person who has ' several votes has no interest in the health, comfort, or beauty of . the municipality, and 0f..-course such an assumption is ridiculous and unwarrantable. *A few large holders of property, might, set their faces against the construction of, say, waterworks, fearing a special rate, and the possibility of such obstruction might be very largely lessened with advantage, but it is not evils of that kind that have been deplored in municipal life. Each municipality with a recognised grievance presents its own special object lesson—some special thing that has been- specially mismanaged,—and it will almost invariably be found that this has come/ about, not from " anj r fundamental fault in the municipal constitutional system, but because tKe men who could have done better have coldly stood aloof and have allowed municipal matters to drift into channels that from non-interference and absence of control become undesirable. To ensure a steady infusion of new blood we would almost go so far as to agree that a councillor after sitting, say, a couple of terms, should not be qualified for return until he had stood aside for, say, another term. Reform must come largely from within, and it is least of all likely to arise, from a quasipolitical . move of . the kind now in contemplation. ■■ We see in this, proposal to ■ extend, the franchise, a..,, tea-, dency dangerous to municipal life and progress. We recognise that municipal reform, by which we mean chiefly the enlarging of municipal powers and the extinction of a number of microscopical bodies which have nevertheless all the machinery for governing a: city, must wait for a 'general reform. in local government. . Such a reform is not to be expected if this new element is introduced, and we have never yet-heard any sane person advocating the handing over of public property-to the care of persons having no interest in its conservation, and who being largely in the majority 'would probably introduce a tyranny greater than- any possible under the present system. We trust, therefore, that Parliament will send the ' proposal to the right-about promptly. ' •