Page 129
Page 129
Haway in Balfo
Наити
CONFIDENTIAL.
County Tornails
AS I have had experience for many years in the county business of the large and varied County of Stafford, and have had opportunities of observing the working of Local Government in various towns ; in that county, as well as in Liverpool, I venture to state my views as to the proposed County Councils Bill.
On reading Mr. Balfour's able Paper on County Councils, l ́observe that his scheme is based upon the idea that both the conditions and the functions of the County Councils will be the same as those of the existing Municipal Councils, and that, acting upon this assumption, be endeavours to assimilate the governing bodies of town and county.
I cannot accept this assumption, and I demur to the wisdom of the assimilation.
The conditions of the two constituencies are totally different.
The constituency of Municipal Council is homogeneous, is occupied with the same class of pursuits (allowing for the different positions in life), has a corporate feeling of its own based on commor interests, and, owing to its limited area, has habits of constant intercourse.
The constituency of a County Council, on the other hand, except in certain small counties, is very various in its composition; its occupations, within the limits of the same county, often range from every form of complicated manufacture to primitive agriculture, from shipping to mining, from com- merce to stock-breeding; and it contains every gradation and variety of class. It is bound by no real common tie, it has little usage of common association, and its distances prevent all but those near its centre from constant attention to its corpo- ruto affairs.
માં
Then, as to the functions to be committed to the County Councils, they are very different from those hitherto exercised by the Municipal Councils.
[00]
B
Page 129
Page 129
Page 129