THE Thames Advertiser THURSDAY, OCT. 26, 1876.

Thames Advertiser, Volume IX, Issue 2454, 26 October 1876, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser THURSDAY, OCT. 26, 1876.

The Borough Council evince no desire to face the proclamation issued by his Honor the Superintendent of the province on the 4th' ultimo, dividing the municipality of Thames into wards, under part 1 section 13, and by virtue of a memorial sent to Mm from onefourth of the ratepayers of this district requesting such alteration. It may be that there are difficulties in the matter of allocating the respective Councillors affected by the proclamation to the respective wards, and it is certain that two of the number now occupying the position of Councillors would be shut out under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act. We understand that until the matter has been decided one or two of the Councillors arc very reluctant to occupy seats at all, fearing that the penal clause of the Act may be enforced against them for occupying such scats whilst the Superintendent's proclamation remains in force. It is possible that the latter may, after all, bo considered null and void, from the fact that the Act provides that no borough shall be divided into wards within thirty days before or after any day appointed for an annual election of members of the Council, whilst the Superintendent's proclamation was issued within the forbidden period. If the legal head of the Thames Borough Council considers the proclamation ultra vires in consequence of this, it will no doubt to some extent account for the course pursued by the Council in treating the notification of the division of the district into wards with contempt. If this is the case, we do not think the ratepayers who signed the requisition to the Superintendent should be so entirely ignored, or the proclamation treated as a dead-letter, until the error committed in issuing it has been pointed out by the Committors, and cognizanco.taken of it by the gentleman under whose hand] it is issued. j If the Council arc not to be conj sidered judges of the legality of proclamation, and are . expected to carry it out, then the course. is plainly indicated in Part 2 of the Municipal Corporations Act. The only difficulty will be in allocating the seats of the South Ward, for which there ai|e double the number, of Councillors qualified—but one of these (Mr lleushaw) is also qualified f|r the North Ward, and will, ' alo doubt, be appointed there if tljc proclamation is acted upon. F<jr South Ward there will remain Mesas Macnab, Ehronfricd, Butt, Gibbonb, and Dr. Kilgour; and. of those two must retire under the following clauses of the Act:—"And the Councillors so falling in the first instance to'any ward shall if in excess of the number of three rank for the purposes of this section for preferable title to office for such ward according to the scale herein elsewhere provided as to the retirement of Councillors." The mode of retirement of,

Councillors is thus provided for:— " Then such Councillors as to whom it shall be so not apparent shall go out of office in the order of the number of votes obtained by each atms election;" and "in all eases in which upon the division into wards of any borough it shall be needful for the allotment of existing Councillors or their removal from, office that the Council proceed as in tlie last two sections mentioned for determining the preferable title to office of any Councillors being otherwise upon an equality -the Council or in their default as aforesaid the Superintendent shall for such occasion forfcliAvith on such division so determine betAvcen such'members." If this Act is not explicit enough the Council may avail themselves of the Act of the present session, "For the "Regulation of Local Elections," providing for a uniform system of conducting the elections to all elective offices in counties, road districts, cities, boroughs, or other local bodies. On the written request of two-thirds of the members of the local body of any district, piwiding the question shall have been considered and agreed to at a public meeting of ratepayers, the Governor may bring those " Regulations" in force in any locality. Such a step is, lioAvcver, unnecessary simply to decide the prior claim to office of two out of a Council of nine members. "Whatever the result may be, Ave do not think the Council are treating the Superintendent Avith proper respect so long as they alloAv the proclamation to bo'inoperative and unnoticed, and we hope they will liot lose their good name by. conduct unbecoming Councillors of the Borough of Thames. . .'■■.., >.