New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1876.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 195, 22 December 1876, Page 10

New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1876.

THE ABOLITION AND COUNTIES' ACTS.

There is highleg^l authority for saying that these Acts are not really in force. The Government, it is true, is enforcing them, but it may well be questioned whether all they have done and are doing in reference to them since the prorogation of Parliament is not invalid. It would appear that the prorogation of the last Session of Parliament was illegal, and that consequently the Abolition and Counties' Acts cannot be enforced. According to one of the provisions of the Abolition Act, it was not to come into force till after the prorogation of the last Session, and secondly, the coming into force of the Counties' Act was to be contingent on the enforcement of the Abolition Act. Consequently if the last Session was not legally prorogued neither of the above-mentioned Acts is now in force. These, however, are questions for the lawyers. But if the prorogation of the last Session was not legal, this fatal irregularity is only a fitting ending to " the blundering and plundering" of the last two Sessions. Meanwhile, elections are being held for seats in the various couuty councils, and although, in Otago at least, there is generally a disposition to have nothing further to do with counties, and to leave the care of roads entirely to Road Boards, there is, nevertheless, a determination ii a few places to put the entire Act into force, and to start with a full complemeut of even well-paid officials. This will be a spectacle, aud will afford all Provincialists a " sweet revenge." But electors ought to attend to two considerations. iPirsi, it is necessary for them to be very much on their guard against loafing poli-

ticians, particularly when they possess, as they sometimes do, considerable abilities ; and in the second place enquiry should be made as to the amount of funds likely to be available. The county system appears to be a farce, and to have never been intended to become a reality. For years to come, if ever, there will be no land fund for distribution, the revenue from this source has been forestalled ; and the consolidated revenue frill hardly suffice to meet the expenses of general administration and the demands of the public creditor. Where, then, are funds to come from for county purposes 1 The only source from which such can be derived is local taxation. But what amount of revenue can be expected from four or five thousand people scattered over an immense area ? — for this is about the average population of counties. And these counties are expected to keep all district ami main roads in repair, open up new lines, build bridges, and provide hospitals, benevolent institutions, &c , &c. In addition, by way of encouraging the couuty system, every hamlet of forty or fifty ratepayers can form itself into a municipality and spend all its own revenue on its own streets to the exclusion of the main thoroughfares of the country. There is grim irony in this, and it proves pretty clearly that the real intent of the A.ct is to drive the people into pure Centralism. But whether this be the intent or not, it must, probably, be the inevitable result. Beforethe end of three sessions of Parliament there will be a universal demand made for the- repeal of the Counties' Act, and the substitution in its place of either Centralism, pure and simple, or of the old Provincialism somewhat modided to suit altered circumstances. And is it for this that two sessions of Parliament will have been wasted, the prosperity of the country checked, and bitter animosities aroused? Truly there is not much political foresight to be found in some of our leading politicians.