District

“ Simply to divide a large district or to unite two small ones needs no geographical protest. The main boundaries live on through either process. What geography kicks at is the making a district out of mere scraps of other districts. ”

“ A school district is one machine, a township another, a county [Pg 191] another, and a state another—all independent organizations, yet every community must work its own organization. They are not operated afar off by some great central power, over the heads of the people; but they are worked by the people themselves, for themselves. ”

“ If it was practicable, he said, it would be necessary to have a district the fixed place. But this is liable to exceptions; as a district that may now be fully settled, may in time be scarcely inhabited; and the back country, now scarcely inhabited, may be fully settled. Suppose this State thrown into eight districts, and a member apportioned to each: if the numbers increase, the representatives and districts will be increased. ”

“ Could not ten intelligent men, chosen from ten districts from this state, lay direct taxes on a few objects in the most judicious manner? It is to be conceived that they would be acquainted with the situation of different citizens of this country. Can any one divide this state into ten districts so as not to contain men of sufficient information? Could not one man of knowledge be found in a district? ”

“ The eighty-three departments were subdivided into 374 districts. In every department was an elected administrative body for the management of its affairs; in every district an elected administrative body, subordinate to the administration of the department, for the management of affairs special to the district. These bodies were composed each of a general council and a permanent executive, styled the directory. In every district the former divisions, called communes, were left unaltered. ”

“ In urban districts where such control has not been claimed, and in rural districts, the county council may either maintain the main roads themselves or allow or require the district councils to do so. ”

“ I never made a single application to any landowner, coalowner, or ironmaster of the district, or to their agents, ground bailiffs, and men of business, for any species of information, that was not instantly and courteously responded to in the most ample manner. 'To enumerate the names of persons I have been thus indebted to would be to give a list of a large part of the population of the district; and is therefore obviously impossible. ”

“ In each collection of precincts which make the smallest electoral district, like a ward in a city or a township in the country, there must be a mesne lord whom the captains obey. In larger election districts, such as a city or a county, or a combination of counties, there must be tenants in chief over the mesne lords. ”

“ PURPOSES.--The division of the county into districts, each with its own court of law, brings justice to the people's doors. It secures officers to every part of the county, thus affording better means for the punishment of crimes. It provides a speedy trial for minor offences and minor suits. It aids the higher courts by relieving them of a multitude of small cases. As each district has one or more polling-places, it secures convenience to the electors in casting their votes.
GOVERNMENT.--The functions of the civil district arc judicial and executive, and lie within a narrow range. ”

“ A district may comprise many hundred villages, thousands of inhabitants, and leagues of intricate and densely peopled country. The mere physical exertion of riding over his district would be too much for any man in about a week. ”

“ Such districts shall be composed of contiguous territory, and assembly districts shall be as nearly equal in population as may be. Each senatorial district shall choose one senator and each assembly district shall choose one member of assembly. ”

“ The several states shall be divided into districts of three hundred thousand inhabitants each, and each district so divided shall have one representative, and in order to give the widest latitude as to choice, there shall be no restrictions as to residence. ”

“ Each district shall contain a population, excluding nonresident military personnel, as nearly equal as practicable to the population of any other district. To the extent reasonable, each district shall contain contiguous territory, shall be compact and convenient, and shall be separated from adjoining districts by natural geographic barriers, artificial barriers, or political subdivision boundaries. The commission's plan shall not provide for a number of legislative districts different than that established by the legislature. ”

“ The larger counties or districts, thrown into a general district, would certainly prevail over the smaller counties or districts, and merit in the latter would be excluded altogether. The report, therefore, seemed to be right in referring the appointment to the legislatures, whose agency in the general system did not appear to him objectionable, as it did to some others. ”

“ Constitution of District Councils and Regional Councils.— (1) There shall be a District Council for each autonomous district consisting of not more than twenty-four members, of whom not less than three-fourths shall be elected on the basis of adult suffrage.
(2) There shall be a separate Regional Council for each area constituted an autonomous region under sub-paragraph (2) of paragraph 1 of this Schedule. ”

“ The counties, with their chief cities, should be so many little independent communities, each with its legislative council, its law-courts, and its other institutions, employing and tasking the political energies and abilities of the citizens or inhabitants of the district. ”

“ The district schoolhouse of a neighboring township is worst served of all, for forty-one Flicker holes punctuate its weather-beaten sides—reason enough, surely, for teaching the young idea of that district how to shoot. ”

“ When any senatorial district shall be composed of two or more counties, the counties of which such district consists shall not be entirely separated by any county belonging to another district, and no county shall be divided in forming a district. ”

“ In dividing a county, or city and county, into congressional districts, no assembly district shall be divided so as to form a part of more than one congressional district, and every such congressional district shall be composed of compact contiguous assembly districts. ”

“ Now that the district possesses a large town, inhabited throughout the year, now that communication is being facilitated, that freight rates are being lowered, and that the population is increasing, it ought to be possible to open up districts that could never have been attempted under the more adverse conditions of two or three years ago. ”

“ In a rural district any parish council may complain to the county council that the district council have made default in keeping any highway in repair, and the county council may thereupon transfer to themselves and execute the powers of the district council at the cost of the latter body, or they may make an order requiring the district council to perform their duty, or they may appoint some person to do so at the cost of the district council. ”

“ When [Pg 301] any city, borough, or township is partly within and partly without the twenty-five mile limit, the whole of such city, borough, or township shall be regarded as within the Suburban Metropolitan District.
Section 2. There shall be an executive department created for every Suburban Metropolitan District, to be known as the Department of Suburban Metropolitan Planning, which shall be in charge of a Suburban Metropolitan Planning Commission. ”

“ According to the Constitution, each magisterial district is a separate school district, and the magisterial district furnishes the basis of representation on the county or city school board. In cities which have a population of at least one hundred and fifty thousand, school boards have the authority to decide for themselves, with the approval of the local legislative body, the number and the boundaries of their school districts. ”

“ There is some confusion in administration and accounts, however, and it is sometimes difficult to determine the exact situation. The Federal District is represented in Congress by 2 senators and 10 deputies, and is credited with the rights and privileges of citizenship. On the other hand, the city is a garrison town and a district under the direct administration of the national executive, who appoints its chief executive, controls its police force, and exercises part control over its streets, squares and water front. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That all that part of the Miami district, lying east of the western cape of Sandusky bay, shall be a district, to be called the district of Sandusky; and the President is hereby authorized to designate such place in the district of Sandusky, as he shall judge expedient, to be the port of entry of the said district; and a collector for the said district shall be appointed to reside at the port of entry. ”

“ They were to call together the officials of the district and explain to them their duties, and to remind the people of their civil and religious obligations. In short they were the direct representatives of the king or emperor. The inhabitants of the district they administered had to provide for their subsistence, and at times they led the host to battle. ”

“ Districts and municipalities.Provinces are divided into districts. These are administered largely by district self-government offices, which have under their direction various governmental departments, particularly that of General Affairs. Municipal governments exist at Mukden, Harbin, and Changchun. At Harbin, however, it is planned to create a Greater Harbin, which will include both the Russian and the Chinese cities. The Special Railway District is to be abolished. ”

“ County, township, school, and road district organizations are necessary in the administration of the laws of the state. They are at most but quasi corporations; all their powers are derived from, and executed under, the general statutes of the state. ”

“ Let the supernumerary males have their twenty-five mu. On occasions of death, or removal from one dwelling to another, there will be no quitting the district. In the fields of a district, those who belong to the same nine squares render all friendly offices to one another in their going out and coming in, aid one another in keeping watch and ward, and sustain one another in sickness. ”

“ The ward or district method of electing city councilmen does not produce a body interested in the best development of the city as a unit, the best transit system for the whole city, the best park system for the whole people, the most complete playground system for all the children. Instead, forty units, more or less, with selfish ideas fostered by local business men and property owners, are represented each by a councilman whose best equipment is his ability to get things for his own ward, and the city plan develops like a crazy quilt. ”

“ The citizens of each communal district designate by their votes those among them whom they believe the most fit to conduct public affairs. Thus the result is a list of the trust-worthy, containing a number of names equal to one-tenth of the number of citizens having the right to co-operate there. It is from this first communal list that the public functionaries of the district must be taken.
8. The citizens included in the communal lists of a department designate likewise a tenth of themselves. ”

“ In adjoining Districts which possess many features in common, this system involves frequent repetitions. But such repetitions are unavoidable, if a complete separate Account of each District is to be given. In every District I start with a description of its geography, general aspects, and physical features. I then proceed to the people, their occupations, ethnical divisions and creeds, with their material condition and distribution into town and country. ”

“ In such a vast picture of solemn solitude, the district of country we design to paint sinks into insignificance, though we feel encouraged to proceed by the conviction that, with slight and immaterial distinctions, he who succeeds in giving an accurate idea of any portion of this wild region must necessarily convey a tolerably correct notion of the whole. ”

“ Under the Local Government Act of 1894 counties are divided for the purposes of the act into urban and rural districts. In British India the word is used to represent the zillah, an administrative subdivision of a province or presidency. In the United States of America the word has many administrative, judicial and other applications. ”

“ County councils were organized in every county of each state and within most of the counties community councils, usually with the school district serving as the unit, were formed. These community councils were not committees, but were the community itself, with all its citizens and agencies organized for coöperative, effective, national service. It was a neighborhood democracy made effective by organization and it established a direct means of reciprocal communication between the Government and the masses of the people. ”

“ They range over a district of more than four hundred leagues, and in the whole extent of plain over which they run the people that inhabit near there descend and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout the country. ”

“ Of rural districts there are in England and Wales 672. They are coterminous, as a rule, with rural poor-law unions, or with the rural portions of unions which are both rural and urban; but they may not comprise parts of more than one county. The governing authority of the district is (p. 185) a council, composed of persons (women being eligible) chosen in most instances triennially by the rural parishes in accordance with population. Unless an order is made to the contrary, one-third retire each year. ”