View report page

19
and the District Councillors are to serve for three years, so that
the elections will be triennial. A citizen may be elected a Common
Councillor for any Municipal District, but to be elected a District
Councillor, he must hold his qualifications in the District—not
necessarily in the Ward for which he is elected. A citizen
possessing a qualification in Christchurch might therefore be
elected for St. Saviour's Ward or vice versa. Any person qualified
to be a Common Councillor, {i.e. whose name appears in the
burgess-roll,) will be eligible to fill the office of Lord Mayor, and
need not at the time of election be a Common Councillor. The
first election of Common Councillors is fixed for the 29th January,
1885; that of District Councillors, for the 29th April, 1885. The
Bill is to come into full operation on the 1st May, 1885, and on
that day, therefore, if passed, the functions of this Board will
absolutely cease and determine..
Without attempting to discuss the provisions of the Bill generally,
it may be observed that in one respect, at least, the District will be
a loser, namely, in the voting power which it now possesses in
relation to the government of the Metropolis under the Metropolis
Local Management Act. For although under the new system it
will be entitled to return two Members to serve on the Central
Council, in lieu of one Member to serve on the Metropolitan Board
of Works as at present, its voting strength will be impaired and
diminished by diffusion in a much larger assembly. The Metropolitan
Board of Works consisting of 46 Members, the representation
of the District on that Board is equal to 1 in 46, or 2.17 per cent.
The new Board will consist of 240 Members, and during the first
triennial period, whilst the Metropolitan Board Member remains a
Common Councilman, the representation of the District thereupon
will be 1 in 80, or 1.25 per cent.; afterwards 1 in 120 or 0.83 per
cent. only. That of the City will be a much larger proportion, namely,
1 in 8, or 12 50 per cent.; the number of Common Councillors
allotted to the City of London (47, eventually to be reduced to 30)
having been arrived at by a different mode of computation to that
which has been adopted in the case of the Municipal Districts, the
basis of calculation for the City being the rateable value only,
whereas that of the Districts is the population and rateable value
C2