The Ashburton Grardian Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1882. Amalgamation of Local Public Bodies.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 820, 16 December 1882, Page 2

The Ashburton Grardian Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1882. Amalgamation of Local Public Bodies.

When the nine provinces into which New Zealand had been parcelled out were abolished in 1876 there were numerous residents possessed of fossilized minds who were almost as much alarmed as if the earth was coming to an end Like old owls, who blink and stare when the ivy in which they

have built their nests is cut down, and are dazzled by the newly-formed light, these worthy people asked in despair—- “ And what are we to have in place of the provinces ? We are not going to Wellington for everyting we want.” The Vogel Ministry had anticipated the want, and the Counties Act was passed in the same year, giving full administrative powers to all the various large districts in the colony, but retaining legislative functions in the hands of the General Government. The scheme embodied in the Counties Act was not a new one. It had been tried in Victoria and had answered well ; so well indeed that, although the Victorian Shires Act was passed more than twenty years ago, there is no one part of the colony, no matter what the politics of the district, from ultra-Berryism to ultraConservatism, where there has ever been the slightest wish to abolish it. Petitions indeed have often been sent in for alterations of the boundary lines of various counties, but any attempt to abolish one single county would occasion a general howl of indignation. Now any Act, which has lasted in the Australasian colonies, above all in Victoria, for more than twenty years, and so as to give universal satisfaction all the time, furnishes about the strongest possible presumptive evidence that the Act is a good one. And that impression would be confirmed by a careful examination of the results in either Victoria or New Zealand. Though our own Act is not as well drawn as that of the sister colony, it has worked remarkably well, wherever competent and upright men have been selected as councillors, as has been the case with the Ashburton County Council, and with some other similar bodies which we could mention. One of the chief defects in our counties system, and one in which it is inferior to that of Victoria, is in the want of complete provision for the merging of Road Boards intoXounty Councils, It is, on the face of it, palpably absurd that two or more local bodies, having administrative powers for the same purposes and over the same area, should be co-existent. Sometimes there are four or five road districts in the same county, each raising its separate rate, apart from and in addition to that of the county, and each saddled with the expense of its own special clerk, treasurer, rate collector, valuator, dog officer, inspector of nuisances, suite of offices, sets of books, auditors, etc., the unlucky ratepayers having to pay the piper of course, and wondering where their money goe» to. It is clear that here there is a large waste of time, trouble, and money. For nothing would be easier than for the county to do all the work, and save a great deal of the expense. Substitute one set of officials for four or five, and it is clear that a good deal of money would be saved, available either for additional works or for a reduction of the rates, as might be most advisable. In many cases, also, the work would be much better done. Without at all disparaging the officials or our various road boards, who do their duty, on the whole, very well, we cannot expect the same quality of services from or a-year official which we should insist upon with a person receiving a salary of -£250 or gineering work. There is not such an enormous amount of real engineering skill in the colony that each little Road Board can afford to pay the services of a competent professional person; and so very often the work is badly done, and has to be done over again. And lest it should be argued that if the various Road Boards were merged in the County Councils, there would often be no really local representation, we may remind the objectors that that would not at all necessarily follow. Nothing would be easier than to proclaim the road districts ridings of the county comprising them, and give the latter one, two, or three more members, these being chosen by the ratepayers from the particular ridings just added. This is part of the Victorian system, and wherever there is a competent clerk of a Victorian county he always keeps a strict debit and credit account in his ledger of the receipts and expenses of each particular riding, and has it ready at each meeting for the guidance of the members. Indeed, all the fuss and agitation about the alleged want of local government in this colony is unmitigated rubbish. The cry comes almost always from one of two classes of people—those desirous of some of the salaried offices which abounded in profusion under the old provincial governments ; or from scheming politicians hard up for a good c r y, or good appeal to vulgar prejudice. Such a cry, however, is not likely to exercise any lasting influence. The counties of New Zealand, suspected almost everywhere ’at first, have done good work already, and are quite capable of doing any quantity more. If the business of the General Government in Parliament were only got through in one half as sensible and business-like a manner, as is customary with the better County Councils in New Zealand, it would be well for the colony.