DEPUTATION TO MESSRS WHITE AND LAKE. M.H.R.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1882, 29 July 1884, Page 2

DEPUTATION TO MESSRS WHITE AND LAKE. M.H.R.

A deputation consisting of Capfc. Sfeele chairman, Mr A. Primrose, member and Capt. MoPherson, clerk of the the Waikato County Council, waited on the members for Waikato and Wnipa at the Courthouse, Hamilton, on Saturday morning:— The Licensing Act. Capt.'.McPherson said he had made a note ot the matters which they wished to bring under the notice of the members. The first subject was connected with the bcensiug committees. The council thought the act required some amendment whereby the expense of electing the committees might bo reduced, Under the present system about 38% of the amount received from licenses in the Waikato County was absorbed in expenses. Was it not possible to vest the powers of the licensing committees in each county in the council, which also should be allowed to fix the amount of the license fe •?—? — Mr Whyte said the plan might worl^ in the country, but he was quite cci t.iin it would not be accepted in the towns. An amalgamation of thesort would inevitably complicate the elections too much.— Mr Lake agreed that the county council should have discretionary power with regard to fixing the amount of the license fees.— dipt. Steele said it was, perhaps, better that the council should not be the committee. He would have each county made a licensing distiict, with one committee. He agreed with Mr Whyte that the towns would not submit to have the two authorities mixed up.— Mr Whyte said he had been an out and out opponent of the present system of elective licensing committees, but it was claimed that it was doing a vast amount of good in the towns, and he was prepared to admit that it was. He was quite sure the towns would not agiee to the alteration, and it would be useless to attempt to make any alteration ot the act at present ; eveiybody was of opiuiou that it should ha\e a fair trial befoie they condemned it. If however any technical amendment were proposed some alteiation in the diiection indicated by the deputation might bo sugg sted, but the act would be most jealou&ly guarded.— Mr Lake said they might perhaps be able to induce Parliament to grant the local bodies the power to determine the amount of the license fee. — Mr Whyte said it might be possible, but they ought not to forget that one of the chief object of the act was to secure uniformity in the administration of the law affecting licenses. At the sime time there was an enormous differ ence between an hotel, properly so called, and a mere "di inking shop," too many of which «.\ist in Auckland, and the other large towns. He would be prepared to advocate a great reduction in the amount of the fee paid by the former, but the latter should be made to pay at least £100. — Mr Like instanced the case of one of two licensed houses which were necessary to the comfort of traxellers, and for which the license fee charged was much too high. He referred particularly to the case of the Whatawhata Hotel. — Mr Whyte said he would piomise if any amendment of the Act were proposed to endeavour to insert an amendment in that diiection.— Mr Lake said that though the Act was undoubtedly doing good in the towns, the smalluess of the licensing districts in the countiy had given rise to much ill feeling —Capt. Steele suggested that boroughs should be exempted from the operation of the proposed amendment. Jurisdiction of E.M. Courts. Capt. McPherson said it was very necessary that the jurisdiction of the R.M. Court at Hamilton should be extended to £100. At piesent no more than £20 could be sued tor, and this caused no small amount of inconvenience He himself was suing a person for £20 (is 3d, ani was obliged to proceed in tiie Disttict Com*, whore the legal and other charges were higher. — Mr Whyte said there was a bill c died the Local Courts Bill, which though it had not yet been brought down was, so to speak, befoie the country. This bill proposed considerable alterations in the constitution of the existing courts. -Capt. McPherson said the contt at Cambridge lnd jurisdiction up to £100.— Mr Whyte said in that case there could be no objection to asking for a similar boon for Hamilton. Slaughter-houses Act. Capt. McPheison said it was very desirable that some alteration should le made in the Slaughter-houses Act, iv the direction of makiag butchers pay in proportion to the business done, At piesent settlers who desired to slaughter, but not to retail meat, suffered a great hardship in that they were obliged to pay the same fee as that paid by a letail butcher. — The hon, gentlemen piomised to give the matter their attention, fully recognising the force of the argument employed by the council. Rates on Crown and Native LandsCapt. McPherson said the council com plained that the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act w as being woiked in a most arbitral y and unsatisfactoiy manner. When the county applied for ceitain rates, as shown by the toll supplied by the Commissioner of Property Tax, no notice was taken of the application for some time ; but afterwards Mr Sperrey forwarded a " substituted roll,'" and instead of some £90 the county got £28. This referred to Crown lands. Regarding the native lands, the Government professed to have relieved the owners of the payment of rates, and pay the same out of the public funds, but though three years' rates were due, the county had not received a farthing. Many natives, too, who were formerly on the roll had been taken off. — Mr Whyte explained that the reason the natives had been exempted was that the Government wanted to get some ot the King Country through the court Crown granted, and if the natives knew that whenever this was jdone they would be liable for rates they w ould not put the land through. — Mr Lake said the matteis complained of were equally noticeable in the Waipa County. Though he himself had conected numerous gloss errors on the rolls, the Government took uo notice of his representations. The Bating ActCaptain McPherson said some alteration was needed in this act to enable local bodies to recover rates with less trouble and expense than was at present the case. If a local board went into the R.M. Court judgment was almost sure to be given against it. The act says that a six months' lease constitutes a man occupier, but there were many properties upon which people were living without a lease, or merely upon sufferance, and no rates could be got. The Kirikiriroa Road Board lost a case the other day. They had sued an occupier, who pleaded that he was on the land merely by the will of the mortgagee, and might be compelled to leave it at any moment. —Mr ,Whyte presumed that -the board could recover from the land.— Captain McPherson said that was so, but in the meantime costs had to be paid, If a man's name was on the roll as occupier, he ought to be liable. — Mr Primrose said all that he contended was that when a person's name was on the roll the onus of proof should rest with him.— Mr Whyte said such a plan might operate very unjustly in the case of absentees, who might be put on a roll quite lmjustly, and be afforded no opportunity of objecting. —Captain Steele pointed out that the Property Tax Was levied in accordance with the' plan mentioned by Mr Primrose. The- party referred 1 to by Captain McPherson had beemin occupation of the land for yeara.-^The attention of" the' members was ..also drawn* to>the necea- 1 sity for providing 'pome /.more, feasible means for J 6he-.'sernce i of,; summonses,' 'c^ul^ndirbe^dUi^fer^^thalnv^l^y&gf

sections are situate, — Capt. Steele said it ought to be sufficient to forwatd the Bti m mops to the post office nearest to the land. — Mr Lake thought an effort should be made to assimilate the procedure in case of suiuy for the cost of destroying furze with that adopted in connection with the recovery of rates. After the lapse of a certain prescribed period the land should be put up to auction and leased or sold. —lt was pointed out that a good deal of the land belonging to defaulting owners was nob fit for leasing purposes. — Mr Lake said they had managed to lease it all in the Waipa County.— Capt. Steele w r as of opinion that all land belonging to defaulters should be put up for sale after the lapse of seven years, and the balance of the purchase money after deducting rates and charges, should be funded tor the benefit of the owner. The Roads and Bridges Act. Mr Primrose drew the members' attention to the necessity for dispensing with j the supervision of the Government engineers in the case of works executed with money borrowed under the Roads and Bridges Act. The amount of work could not be overtaken by the Government officers and it should be sufficient if the I engineer of the local body certified to the expenditure.— Mr Lake said the alteration had been made, and money was now paid by the Government on the certificate of the engineer of the local bodies. At the request of Mr Whyte, Capt. McPherson promised to put the whole of the requirements of the council in writing and Messrs Whyte and Like promised to give the matters their earnest attention. The deputation having thanked the members, then withdrew.