LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 921, 5 September 1896, Page 2

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Give tlie People Control

Thk time has arrived for tbe annual elec. tion of councillors for the 3ix wards of the city of Auckland. Two of the seats are contested; four are allowed to pass without question. All of which goos to show that the ratepayers of Auckland don't care a tinker's curse how the affairs of the city are administered or who administers them. It might be argued that the burgesses are satisfied with their former choice, and see no necessity for an infusion of fresh blood, but the continual grumbling in the daily press and the grizzling in private places do not argue strongly for this contention. We see nothing wrong with the councillors ourselres, bnt on every hand we hear them condemned and bnllyragged by other

people, and now we would like to ask why somebody doesn't come forward and have a try at the game, or kick up a bobbery, or do so mething to show that the ratepayers know that there is an election, and that they are going to have a voice in it ?

Bat nobody seems to know about it eri cept the officials of the Council and the Returning Officer whose duty it is to I receive nominations of candidates, and the placid, easy-going member for the ward who is in doubt whether it is his torn to retire or not, and who isn't really sure nntil he Bees hiß name figuring in the election notice in the newspapers. The whole proceeding is a sleepy one altogether, and is a strong reflection npota the system that prevails of municipal government by ratepayers only. Extend the municipal franchise to embrace all householders of the borough, and there would be no reason to complain of lack of interest in the election. There would be a fight for each seat, and the elections would be fought on popular lineß, and we would know the policy and opinions of each candidate, and would judge him accordingly. Also, a nice discrimination would be drawn between the honest man and the boodler, and the honest man would sit in the high places of the borough, while the boodler would be taught the error of his ways by a well-deserved relegation to municipal oblivion.

It ib difficult to conceive any sufficient reason why the popular franchise should not be used for municipal elections. The ratepayer claims an absolute voice in the management of the~ city's affairs, because he finds the revenue. JBut who are the .actual ratepayers? Not the ownerß of property, because they get their rates returned to them in the form of rentals, but the rent-payers, the license-pay erß, the water consumers, the people who are subject to the dog tax, the carters' tax. and to the dozen and one other taxes v> iiich the borough exacts from people who don't own property at all. But why even l.mit the franchise to the people who supply the revenue ? There are other and broader considerations which govern this question. The City Council passes bye-laws which affect every resident of the municipality. Are the people who become subject to these laws to have no voice in the selection of the local law-makers ? The ratepayers say no — they deny the householders a voice in their own government, just as the Boers denied the franchise to the Oitlanders. And yet, for six years a Liberal Government has been in power, and has failed to secure for as this greatest of all local government reforms.

The result is shown in the supineness of the ratepayers with reference to their own government. It is shown in the bare, faced attempt that is being made by half-a-dozen boodlera in the City Council to filch from the city a valuable tramway right for a period of forty years. It is shown also in the sordid opposition displayed by a wretched handful of rent-squeezers to necessary and progressive public works, Buch as an effective water supply, complete and health ensuring drainage, and hygienic advantages for the people, such as the proposed but now nearly-shelved breathing space for the people in Freeman's Bay. And of all the sacrifices which the people are being compelled to make to the greedy, grasping rapacity of the landlord, who draws his wealth from rows of insanitary, closely-packed, jerry-built houses, this sacrifice of the Freeman's Bay recreation ground for the working classes and their children is the most intolerable. Nothing will protect the estate of the people from boodling and promote the progress, prosperity and improvement of the city so much as a popular franchise would, and the popular franchise for municipal elections must come.