West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 25, 1867.

West Coast Times, Issue 625, 25 September 1867, Page 2

West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 25, 1867.

The Act to provide for the establishment of Municipal Corporations consists of 395 clauses, and covers seventy-two closety printed pages. The enumeration and classification of the clauses occupy fifteen additional pages, ancl the schedules eighteen in number, cover fifty-four additional pages. The whole constitute a volume of 116 full parliamentary pages. The analysis of the provisions of this important measure will necessarily extend over a considerable space, and we shall be under the necessity therefore of devoting several successive articles to it.

The Bill proper is divided into twenty-three parts as follows : — Part 1. Constitution, Division, Union, &c, of Boroughs; Part 2. Councils and Councillors of Boroughs ; Part 3. Burgesses, Burgess List and Rolls; Part 4. Election of Councillors ; Part 5. Assessors and Auditors ; Part 6. Election and Privileges of Mayor ; Part 7. Proceedings of the Council ; Part 8. Ouster of Office ; Part 9. Contracts ; Part 10. Officers ; Part 11. Accounts; Part 12. Notices, &c, and Legal Proceedings; Part 13. Government of Boroughs, and ByeLaws ; Part 14. Ordinary Revenue and Borough Fund : Part 15. General Rates ; Part 16. Loans and Special Rates ; Part 1 7. Power to take Land for Permanent Works, &c. ; Part 18. Streets, Bridges, and the like ; Part 19. Sewerage, &c. ; Part 20. ; Part 21. Water Supply; Part 22. Markets; Part 23. Miscellaneous. Clause 1 specifies these several portions of the Bill ; and Clause 2is the Intei pietation Clause.

Clause 3 recites the names of cities or towns incorporated under any Act or Ordinance, specified in a schedule, as towns which may bo constituted Boroughs under the Act. On turning to the schedule we find the town of Hokitika in the list, as incorporated under the " Hokitika Municipal Council Ordinance, 1867," with boundaries specified in the Proclamation by his Honor the Superintendent of the Province of Canterbury, of the 30th June, 1866.

In order to bring any incorporated town under the Act, it is necessary, as provided by clause 3, for not less than fifty resident householders within the district, to petition the Governor ; and if within two months of the publication of such petition, no counter petition signed by an equal or greater number of resident householders shall have been presented, it shall be lawful for the Governor by proclamation to constitute the district a Borough under -"(he Act.

The 4th clause refers to " original boroughs" ; and on reference to the Interpretation Clause, wefirid that the word " original," where applied to boroughs, means Boroughs constituted under the Act, upon petition from resident householders, iv the districts already incorporated under any Act or Ordinance cited in the schedule to which we have already referred. Thus Hokitika, on petitioning to be brought under the Act, would be within the definition of an " original borough." In contradistinction from this class, the words " proclaimed borough" are applied to any borough constituted after the commencement of the Act, not boing an original borough. The word Borough standing by itself, means any borough, whether original or proclaimed.

Immediately after the first constitution of an original borough under the Act, the Act or Ordinance under which it was incorporated will cease to have effect. But the 35th clause provides that the members of Councils or Boards holding office under the repealed Acts shall continue in office to all intents and purposes as though elected under the new Act ; and all lawful acts done under Ordinances so repealed shall " be of the same force and effect to all intents and purposes as if no such repeal had taken place."

Clause 6 enacts that all rates already due, and penalties incurred, in the case of original boroughs shall be vested in the new Council, and bo levied and recoverable by them ; and clause 7 provides that all rights and liabilities shall be similarly vested in the new body corporate of the original borough, immediately after the first election under the Act.

Clause 8 applies the same provision to all property, real and personal, of the body corporate. Clauses 9, 10, 11 and 12 refer to " proclaimed " boroughs, and the mode of constituting them on petition. By clause 13 the Superintendent of any Province is authorised if he think fit, on the receipt of a petition signed by one-fourth of the number of persons liable to be rated under the Act to divide any original borough into three separate Wards.

Clauses 14 to 26 provide for the union of Boroughs and Koad Districts ; but we apprehend that these clauses

were intended to work in connection with the Local Government Bill, and that since the defeat of that measure they have become obsolete.

By clause 27, the inhabitants of every Borough are declared to be a body corporate under the name of the Mayor, Councillors and Burgesses of the Borough, and by that name to have perpetual succession &c.

Clause 30 enacts that each single Borough shall have a Council of nine elected members, and by clause 32 these nine Councillors are to be distributed amongst the several Wards in cases where a Borough ia divided into Wards.

Clause 33 enacts, that of the Councillors who shall be in office in any single borough at the time of its division into wards, shall be allotted as follows. Each Councillor to the ward in which the property for which he is rated is situated ; or, if he be rated for property in two wards, then to the ward in which he is rated in the highest amount. Iv case he is rated equally in two or more wards, then to the ward which stands highest in the proclamation creating the same. If the number of Councillors who would under those regulations fall to any one ward should exceed three, the preferable title is to be determined according to a scale enacted in a subsequent clause regulating the retirement of Councillors. At this point the provisions of the Act become somewhat complicated, and we reserve our further notice of it.

In accordance with the resolution proposed by Mr Shaw at the last sitting of the League Council, a meeting has been called for this evening, to be held at the New Orleans Hotel, at which all the members of the League and the members of the original committee appointed at the public meeting held at the Prince of Wales Theatre, are invited to attend. We have before explained the circumstances which have led the Council to the conclusion that a reform stopping short of the erection of a new Province, might be at once obtained that would meet all the substantial requirements of the district. If we can secure two things — the practical control of the departments and the expenditure of the whole of our revenues, including customs, gold export duty and proceeds of laud sales — all the objects for the attainment of which Separation was advocated, will have been realised. Judging from the communications received from Major Richardson and the Hon. John Hall, the General Government appear desirous of conceding thus much to the "Westland petitioners ; and if in that sense the prayer of the petitioners is earnestly prosecuted, we do not doubt that even the present session may witness the redress of our more substantive grievances. It is, under these circumstances, of great importance that all the friends of the cause of local self-government should combine in pressing the claims of the district ; and we trust that the meeting, which has been called for free conference on this subject for ihis evening, will be fully attended by those who have the interests of Westland honestly at heart.

The Town Solicitor interprets the 10th Section of the Municipal Corporation Ordinance, in aya v sense which necessitates the retirement of the whole of the present Councillors on the 9th October. The clause reads as follows :— " By and from among the enrolled male citizens shall be elected nine persons, &c." As the first legal Citizens' Roll has been compiled since the election of the present Councillors to office, Mr Harvey holds that a" general election must take place before the provisions of the Ordinance are complied with. We are glad that legal ingenuity has discovered a way out of the practical difficulty felt by the Councillors ; and that although they have not the option given them of " resigning, in order to meet the wishes of tho ratepayers," they will have the opportunity of submitting themselves for re-election, and so testing the public feeling towards them. Now this, difficulty is got rid of, the sooner intending candidates declare themselves the better, in order that their merits; the value of their past services to the community; and the guarantee of future public usefulness afforded by their position and abilities ; may be well weighed.