All the odium would be thrown on the City Council on account of others, who were to act perfectly independent of them.^_^_ Councillor Calvert said he was quite of the opinion expressed by previous speakers, namely, that they ought to oppose the Bill in toto, for the reason that it was very crude. People had not had an opportunity of con sidering the merits or demerits of the Bill. If a motion were brought forward to oppose the Bill in toto, he should certainly give it bis support. The Mayor said that Councillors would no doubt like to hear his opinion on the subject. He thought he would have been doing a very great wrong in not calling this meeting, be cause if the Bill passed and Councillors after wards objected to it, the onus would have been thrown on his shoulders. He was very glad to find the degree of unanimity that pre vailed. The Council affirmed ,in principle that it was wise to educate the people, and that laws should be passed to enable educa tion to the poorer classes to be carried out. But the one before them was a crude and ill digested scheme. One of his great objections to the Bill was, that it did not give any de tail as to how the money was to be raised ; and no importance was given to the institu tions now in existence. There was no state ment at all about a counter petition. If a counter petition,feigned by double the num ber, were brought in, praying that the pro visoes of the Bill should not be enforced, the Provincial Council might pass over that peti tion if it liked, and accede to the prayer of the lesser number. That was a very great defect in the Bill. He objected to the Bill on the principle stated by Councillor Bishop with regard to one-sixth or one-fourth of the burgesses petitioning the Superintendent. That would amount to the majority being ruled by the minority. Now that wonld be all very well for a certain class, but not for the present state of civilisation. He also thought that the man who paid 2s fid of rates should not have the same amount of “ say ” in a matter of suoh importance as the man who paid £6O of rates. 