Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The New Zealand Confederation: An Enquiry Into the Present State of Political Affairs Suggestions as to the Best Form of Government for the Colony
Governments, the General Government having a voice in their proceedings through the media of the Chief Commissioners. They have been strictly local bodies, and amenable to local control, whereas, under the new order of things, they are Boards nominated by the Ministry and responsible to it alone, nor will the County Councils possess the faintest right to complain of their conduct, even should it meet with public disapproval. While the Boards are thus removed from popular in?uence, their powers are augmented; and they will henceforth exercise many of the functions which formerly appertained to the Provincial Councils and Executives. The Otago Board, for example, will be required to perform the delicate task of deciding what blocks of land shall be set apart for hundreds and for sale on deferred payments, subject, indeed, to the approval of the Governor, but still wielding a power which is liable to be used in the most mischievous manner. The Counties Act is likewise calculated to strengthen the political power of the rich. By the system of multiple voting which it introduces, it will be possible for a large property holder to possess forty-five votes in a single county, whereas the poor man can enjoy but one, while the corrective originally provided whereby the Chairman of the County Council was made elective by the single votes of the whole body of ratepayers, has been taken away by the Legislative Council, and the election of Chairman entrusted to the County Council itself, thus aggravating the inequality of the franchise.
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