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76
it was passing through Parliament. The Parliamentary
Bills Committee presented a lengthy report, suggesting
several amendments. This Report was adopted by the Vestry,
and a copy forwarded to the Government, and the Vestry are
gratified to find that some of their suggested amendments are
embodied in the Act.
It is unnecessary now to refer in detail to the clauses of
the Bill to which exception was taken, but the followingextracts
from the Committee's Report are given as embody
ing the views of the Vestry on questions of principle relating
to Local Government, which must be hereafter dealt with by
Parliament.
As regards the Local Government Electors Act, your Committee are of
opinion tbat none of the clauses call for special comment from a Metropolitan
point of view; they regret, however, that advantage was not taken of the
opportunity to provide that the Register of Electors, which is to be made up
and used in the election of members of the proposed County Councils,
should be used in all other local elections. At present, scarcely any two
elections of Local Boards are conducted on the same principle, and not only
is much needless cost thus incurred in the preparation of special lists of
voters for the Election of Members of the School Board and Boards of
Guardians, but varying franchises and modes of election cause considerable
trouble to those ratepayers who are desirous of performing their duty of
citizenship in the election of members of the various public boards. If a
number of independent authorities are to be retained (and on this point your
Committee submit their opinion a little later), the use of the County Boll
of Electors should be extended to Boards of Guardians, School Boards,
Metropolitan Vestries, and all other Authorities elected by the Ratepayers,
and all elections should be taken by ballot under precisely the same
system. This enactment would abolish plural and proxy voting for
Guardians, and cumulative voting for School Boards; it would, as already
stated, save the expense of preparing special lists of voters, and simplify
the procedure at local elections by introducing one uniform system. Your
Committee are much impressed with the large proportion of ratepayers who
at present abstain from taking part in the Local Elections, and believe
that much of the existing apathy is due to the difficulty of comprehending
the different modes in which the elections of local bodies are conducted.