THE NEW MUNICIPAL ACT.

West Coast Times, Issue 630, 1 October 1867, Page 3

THE NEW MUNICIPAL ACT.

'-\ (WEST COAST TIMES, SEPT. 25.) TifE 1 Act to provide for the establishment of. Municipal Corporations consists of 395 clauses, and covers seventy-two closely printed pages. The enumeration and classification of the clauses occupy fifteen||dditional pages, and the schedules eigliteen in number, cover fifty-four additional pages. The whole constitute a volume of llGJfiLiJljjijr^iamentary pages. - The .arialysis 'oi 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, Uniou, Sec, , of Boroughs ; Part 2 Councils aud Councillors of Boroughs : Part 3. Burgesses, Burgess List aud 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, aud Legal Proceedings ; Part IS. Government of Boroughs, and ByeLaws; Part 14. Ordinary Revenue and Borough Fund;. Part 15. General Rates; Part 16. Loans and Special Rates; Part 17. Power to take Land for Permanent Works, &c. ; Part 18. Streets, Bridges, aud the like : Part 19. Sewerage, &c. : Part 20. Lighting ; Part 21. Water Supply; Part 22. Markets; Part 23. Miscellaneous. Clause 1 specifies these several portions of the Bill ; and Clause 2is the Interpretation Clause. Clause 3 recites the names of cities or towns incorporated under any Act or Ordinance, specified in a schedule, as towns which may be 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 'lovernor ; and if within two months of the publication of such petition, no counter petitiou 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 the Act.

The 4th clause refers to ''original boroughs" ; and on reference to the Interpretation Clause, we n nd that the word " original, 1 ' where applied to boroughs, means Boroughs constituted under the

Act, upon petition from resident householders, in 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 being 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 tli at 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 ease of original boroughs shall be vested in the new Council, and be 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 ;o all property, real and personal, of ,he body corporate.

Clauses 9, 10, 11 und 12 refer to v proclaimed " boroughs, and the mode of constituting them on petiti6n.

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 Road 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 uuder the name of the Mayor, Councillors and Burgesses cf 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 is divided into Wards.

Clause 33 enacts, that of ,the Councillors who shall be in^office in any single borough at the tnn*e r pf its division into wards, shall be allotted as follows. Each Councillor to the,;wird in which the property for whicbAhe 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. In 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.