HIGHWAY BOARD EMPOWERING ACT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1238, 29 September 1871, Page 2

HIGHWAY BOARD EMPOWERING ACT.

SPEECH OF MR BRYCE, MH.R

Mr Bryce felt very mucli disappointed with the Bill before the House, and especially so because he had heard in the Governor's speech that a Highway Bi 1 was to be introduced. He had expected that the measure would be a colonial one, but the Bill could not be called that, and was not even what it pretended to be. The title of the Bill was "An Act to confer on Highway Boards constituted under Provincial laws certain powers which cannot be conferred by Provincial Legislatures, and for other purposes;" but he thought it might be properly entitled a Bill to enable Superintendents "to confer those powers, for section 3 of Part I. provided that " The Superintendent of any Province may, from time to time, by proclamation, declare that any or all parts of this Act shall apply to any highway district constituted by any Provincial Act;" and thus it rested abso"lutely in the discretion of the Superintenent whether those powers should be conferred or not. The Bill was evidently framed merely for the purpose of supplementing provincial legislation, and he thought with the member who spoke last, that it ought to have been more comprehensive and should have contained more clauses ; not that he thought that the number of clauses was a guide as to the value of a measure, for sometimes there might be too many, but this short Bill could not be supposed to contain all necessary legislation on the subject. He had no doubt that an Act of some kind was absolutely necessary, and in this he agreed with the honorable member for the Hutt. That honorable member had alluded to the Wellington Act, to show that the present Bill was one that should be adopted ; but he (Mr Bryce) thought that the Act for which the honorable member for the Hutt claimed so much credit, would be found to be quite useless without some such measure as that now before the House. The Act the honorable member had praised so highly did not confer upon the Boards any power to compel the payment of rates by absentees, an;l the Board could not do so, and could not be empowered by the Provincial Council to do so unless the present Bill passed the Legislature. He would be happy to vote for the second reading of the Bill, on the principle that half a loaf was better, than no bread, but he would express his regret that the Government had not framed a more comprehensive measure, and one that would have', superseded any necessity for making use of Provincial Legislation. He quite agreed with the honorable member for Waitaki, that the Bill appeared to exempt natives in a manner that was very unfair, for the Maoris had alwaj's been exclaiming against not having equal rights with the Europeans, but they now wished a great deal more, and not only desired the same rights and privileges, but laid claim to be exempt from the burdens .others had to sustain, and that he thought very inequitable.