First Municipality Established.—Brisbane Bridge Lands.—Grant for Town Hall.—Consolidating Municipalities Act.—Provincial Councils Act.—Government Buildings not Rateable.—Brisbane Bridge Debentures and Waterway Acts.—Municipal Endowment.—Local Government Act of 1878.—Divisional Boards Act of 1879; Success of the Act.—Local Works Loans Act.—Two Pounds for One Pound Endowment Repealed.—Rating Powers Extended by Local Authorities Act of 1902.—Cessation of Endowment.—Valuation and Rating Act.—Decline in Land Values.—Unequal Incidence of Rates Levied.—Efficiency of Local Authorities.0
When Sir George Bowen proclaimed the establishment of Queensland there was only one municipality within the boundaries of the new colony. Brisbane had been incorporated just three months earlier, probably with the view of having the Mayor of a local authority to take his part in the inaugural celebrations. At that time the New South Wales Municipal Institutions Act of 1858 was in force, but it was quite inadequate to the needs of the country. Sir George Bowen, coming from residence among the crowded populations of Great Britain and several European countries, and recognising what powerful safeguards to public liberty municipal corporations had proved, publicly urged the establishment of local government in Queensland on every favourable opportunity.
In 1861 two Municipalities Acts were passed, one empowering the Brisbane City Council to build a bridge across the river, and providing for endowment in the form of grants of Crown land not exceeding two-thirds of the unsold town and suburban allotments of Brisbane; also empowering the council to borrow for the purpose of erecting the structure. The other Act gave extended powers to municipal councils generally. It defined the rateable value of unoccupied lands to be 8 per cent. of their actual capital value, but the minimum rate of any allotment was not to be less than 10s. per annum. It also provided that unoccupied land might be leased for fourteen years by a council when rates had been permitted to fall into arrear for a term of four years. It further empowered a council to borrow on mortgage a sum not exceeding the estimated revenue for the ensuing three years. As additional endowment, it was provided that the Governor in Council might pay to a municipal council every year one-third of the proceeds of land sold within its jurisdiction; and where one-half of the land in a municipality had been sold the council were to be entitled to one-half of the proceeds of future sales.
In 1863 an Act was passed giving the Brisbane Council power to erect a town hall on allotment 4 and part of allotment 3 of section 12, with a frontage to Queen street and Burnett lane respectively of 99 ft., and a depth of 138 ft., to be granted by the Government on the passing of the Act. The council were empowered to borrow £20,000 for the purposes of the hall. The Brisbane Waterworks Act empowered the Government to grant a site for the proposed works on the heads of Enoggera Creek, but the Government were to borrow the sum necessary for construction, and to hand over the money to the council as it might be required.
In 1864 an amending and consolidating Municipal Institutions Act was passed giving larger and more specific powers to municipal bodies. In the same year a Provincial Councils Act was passed, empowering the Government to appoint such councils in the country districts, and place at their disposal money from time to time voted by Parliament for roads and bridges within their jurisdiction. But the members, not being elective, had no power to levy rates, so that the councils would at best have been no more than bodies delegated with power by the Works Department to carry out works with which the Government could not conveniently grapple. The only provincial council established under the Act, however, was one for the Peak Downs district, of which all the members were Crown lessees. That council had its place of meeting at Clermont, and on first assembling it resolved not to admit the Press to its meetings. This exclusive policy, combined with the class character of its members, made the council at once unpopular, and after spending £2,000 which had been placed to its credit by the Government it ingloriously collapsed.
In 1865 an Act was passed dividing the Brisbane Municipality into six wards, each returning two members. In 1868 an amendment of the 1864 and 1865 Acts was passed enabling councils to forbid the erection of inflammable buildings. In the following year an Act was passed which forbade the levy of rates upon Government buildings. An Act of the same year enabled the Governor in Council to rescind any proclamation of town or suburban lands.
In 1870 the Brisbane Bridge Debentures Act and the Brisbane Waterway Act were passed. By the former the council were empowered to issue debentures, bearing 5 per cent. interest and covering £121,250, for the payment of its bridge liabilities. The preamble recited that a contract had been entered into with Mr. John Bourne for the construction of the bridge; that owing to alterations in the plan assented to by the Government the cost had been largely increased, and the work had in fact been suspended; that the bank overdraft, secured upon all the bridge lands and the rates, exceeded £100,000; and that Thomas Brassey, having supplied the ironwork of the bridge, had undertaken to complete the structure on certain conditions involved in the issue of the debenture loan above mentioned. The Waterway Act provided for the repayment to the council of the cost of certain waterways by the sale of lands specified in the schedule.
In 1875 another Act was passed providing for the payment to the Brisbane Council of the cost of certain drainage works by the sale of city lands specified in its schedule. In the same year the Rockhampton Waterworks Act, being the first for a provincial body, was passed. In 1876 an Act was passed for endowing municipalities to the extent of £2 for £1 on the rates collected for the first five years after incorporation and £1 for £1 in subsequent years.
In 1878 was passed the ponderous Local Government Act, adapted from the recent Victorian legislation, but denounced by the Opposition in the Assembly at the time as far too cumbrous save for town municipalities. It formed, however, one of the bases of the Local Authorities Act of 1902. In 1879 a new departure was made by the first McIlwraith Government by passing a rudimentary measure—the Divisional Boards Act—in which the Government took power to apply the Act simultaneously to all parts of the colony. It gave power to levy rates, and therefore excited popular anti-tax demonstrations. But much that was said against the bill proved on investigation to be inaccurate, and the endowment it provided of £2 for £1 collected in rates for the term of five years ultimately went far to neutralise the hostility expressed towards the measure. Also the bill provided that to give the boards a start an additional £100,000 should be divisible among them as soon as their respective valuations had been made and a certified copy of each had been forwarded to the Treasury. After a stern and protracted struggle in the Assembly the bill was passed, and immediately the Colonial Secretary of the time (Mr. A. H. Palmer) cut into "divisions" the entire area of the colony outside the boundaries of existing municipalities, and proclaimed seventy-four local governing areas under that name, each in three subdivisions with nine members for each body. Then every division was invited to elect its first members, and rather more than one-half of them did so. Within four months from the passing of the Act—on 13th February, 1880[a]—the whole of the members were gazetted, the Government having taken advantage of the power given to the Governor in Council to appoint the first members where no action had been initiated to elect them within ninety days after the passing of the Act. Thus the names of between 600 and 700 members were proclaimed on one day, and the new boards forthwith proceeded to put the Act into execution. In a comparatively short time valuations were made, and on receipt of a copy the Treasurer placed to the credit of the board, in the branch of the Queensland National Bank nearest to the division, an amount equal to 1s. in the pound of the valuation. This done, works were forthwith commenced in all parts of the country, and a few years later visitors from the South were wont to compliment the people of Queensland on the vast improvement made in their bush roads.
In the following year (1880) the Local Works Loans Act was passed, and attracted attention in different parts of the Empire as the first measure that provided for advancing local loans by a Government on the scientific basis of a term measured by the life of each work, and in accordance with an actuarial scale set out in a table in the schedule. The longest term was forty years, that being given for the most durable works, the rate charged being 5 per cent. interest, with 16s. 8d. per annum redemption money. Thus a council could borrow for waterworks on a forty years' loan, and redeem the principal as well as defray the interest charge, by payment of regular half-yearly instalments of £2 18s. 4d. per cent. during the term. This Act soon became very popular, and with slight amendments—one being the reduction of the interest charge to 4 per cent., and the half-yearly instalment in the case of a forty years' loan to £2 10s. 0½d. per cent.—it still remains on the Statute-book as part of the Local Authorities Act of 1902. Several millions sterling have since been lent by the Government under this Act, and scarcely a local authority has defaulted except for a short period. The principle has also been extended to sugar works and other loans not contemplated originally; yet with firm administration, such as the Government for several years past have insisted upon, the future losses, if any, will be slight, and the benefit of the Act continue to be great.