A Local Government Code It would be an immense boon
to the many thousands of men and women who give their services as members of various local authorities if their legal: rights and duties were defined in a single code instead of in a mass of often discordant statutes enacted in the past century. Lord Chelmsford's Committee, appointed by the late Labour Government, has put- forward such a code, but admits that it is incomplete, though the draft Bill runs to -250 pages. It includes a few needed amendments of the law. One of these would put an end to the multiple candida- tures in which an ambitious, but unappreciated, citizen sometimes indulges, thus wasting the ratepayers' money on farcical contests. . Another would debar any councillor from accepting a paid office from his council until six months after he has resigned his membership. Our local administration is commendably clean, but it is just as well that the safeguards against corruption should be strengthened.
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