A.—4,

152

The Act is deficient in the absence of distinct provisions for surcharging the Council with a misappropriation of the Council's funds and powers for enforcing such surcharges. All the accounts of Counties and Road Boards are at present audited by five officers of the General Government called Provincial District Auditors, who report to the Colonial Treasurer, but they have no power to rectify any misdealing with the accounts or moneys of the bodies subject to their audit. The Rating Act of 1878 repealed all former provisions on the subject of rating, and substituted provisions to apply to all bodies alike empowered to levy rates. It provides for an annual valuation list of rateable property to be made by valuers appointed by the local body, and for its revision by an Assessment Court, consisting of the Resident Magistrate or any other person appointed by the Governor After revision it becomes the valuation roll for the district. The local body, for the purposes of the valuation, is " the Municipal Council, lload " Board, or other body having the control and management of the roads of the " district." Any other bodies having power to rate must levy rates only on the valuation roll so prepared. On making a rate, a rate-book must be prepared in a specified form, which may be amended by the local body making the rate on appeal by a ratepayer, so far as to make the rate-book coincide with the valuation roll, oi' to correct errors in computing the rate, but no further Pull powers are given for the collection and recovery of rates, and for the sale of property whose rates are unpaid. Six months' notice must be given to the ratepayer that judgment has been obtained against him for the rates due, and twelve months after the expiry of the notice the property may be sold by auction. By an amending Act in 1879, land may be leased by public auction for not more than fourteen years, instead of being sold. " The Regulation of Local Elections Act, 1876," contains all the provisions for the conduct of an election which are usually incorporated into any Act constituting an electoral body Elections under it are by ballot, and the voter receives as many voting papers as the number of votes he is entitled to give. It provides also for cases of disputed elections. The Act comes into force only in respect to elective officers to which it is applied by any Act of the General Assembly, or on the written request of at least two-thirds of the members of the local body of any district, by Proclamation of the Governor It is incorporated into the Municipal Corporations Act and the Counties Act. Several local Acts are also in force for the drainage of certain districts, and for the protection of certain districts against the overflow of the larger rivers, by which local Boards are constituted with special jurisdiction and powers of rating and borrowing money for the objects for which they are created. Amongst the great variety of points in which all these schemes of local government differ, it is only necessary to notice the leading features. In one respect only all agree, with the exception of New Zealand, namely, in the election of the Mayor, President, or Chairman of the local body, by the Council or Board, instead of by the ratepayers. In New Zealand alone, and then only in the towns, the Mayor is elected by the citizens or burgesses; a provision the object of which is not very clear, seeing that no special powers are vested in the Mayors, other than those exercised by every Councillor, except that of presiding over the Council, whereas the Mayors of Sydney and Melbourne, who are elected by the Council, have special powers and rank, which have not been attached to the office in the New Zealand Corporations. Secondly, attention should be directed to the different bases upon which the valuations of rateable property are required to be made, and also to the great discrepancy between the voting power accorded to property in the different colonies, extending from a single vote, irrespective of value, to ten votes, in proportion to the value of the property rated, as in Tasmania. Thirdly, it will be remembered that only in Queensland and Tasmania—and in the former only partially—are the accounts of local bodies audited by the Audit

The Bating Act.

Bequlation ' of Elections Act,

General Bemaeks.