It is stated that the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Bill is likely to pass the second reading, but that it will be greatly modified in Committee. This latter proviso is certainly necessary, for, as it now stands, the Bill bristles with objec tionable points. It wantß_ to be entirely recast, for, at present, it is like the Irishman's gun, which, to be rendered at all serviceable, required a new lock, stock, and barrel. Somo of our objec tions to it may be briefly stated, and they will, we venture to think, be allowed to be sound ones. To begin with, the Bill is in direct opposition to on© of the very first principles of local Government, that taxation must be accompanied by rep. res-ntation. This maxim is entirely ignored, as we will proceed to show, and our readers will perhaps be able to understand the operations ot the measure more clearly, if, by way of illustration, we point out how it will work in Nelson. At present the charitable aid system is worked by a Board or Committee, con sisting of three members elected by the City Council, four by the Waimea County Council, and one by the Colling wood County Council, the amounts contributed respectively by these three bodies being £800, £946, and £___, these sums being" fixed on the basis of rateable property in each district. Under the new system this Board will be done away with, and for the Nelson district, which includes the Gity of Nelson, and counties of Waimea aud Collingwood, there is to be one Controlling Council, which wili be the " Nelson Borough Council" — a body, by the way, which does not exist, as under the Municipal Corporation Act Nelson is constituted " a city, " and consequently the local governing body is a " City Council. " This is a trifling matter, but such an error should not haye been made by the draftsman who drew up the Bill, The Controlling Council, or in other words the Nelson City Council, is to fix the amount leviable upon the County Councils, who will have to contribute in a like proportion to that in which they are now taxed, but they will have no voice whatever in tho expenditure. To pay the money which the Controlling Council will spend is all that they will have to do in the matter. 