COUNTY COUNCIL v. ROAD BOARDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1258, 20 May 1884, Page 3

COUNTY COUNCIL v. ROAD BOARDS.

To the Editor* Sib,—l notice in your report of the ratepayers’ meeting held at Mount Somers on Saturday last, the following resolutions were omitted : Proposed by Mr Peache and carried—(l) “ That this meeting is of op nion that the official expenditure of the County Council for tbe ensuing year will be out of all proportion to the amount of work proposed.” (2) “That if the County Council is still to exist, that they should be the only rating bo ly, apd that their officers should carry out the work for the Road Beards ; and that after deducting a small percentage for general expenses, that the rates collected by the County- Council should be returned to the districts where they are collected. ” Your report also omitted to supply the figures quoted by Mr Peache and myself to show the comparative economy of working under County Council and Road Board management. They were as follows ;

Countv Council. March 31, 1882. Percen- - Expenditure. Expenses. tage. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 12,865 8 2 ••• *«3*3 10 7 ••• 10 4 0 March 31, 1883. 13,210 4 4 ... 1,551 1 3 ... II 6 4 March 31, 1884. 9.195 6 3 ... 1.428 16 ir ... IS 10' 9 Or an average for three, years ji 12 per cent. Road Boards. Wakanui. March 31, 1884. 972 s 2 ... 332 6 11 ... 34 per cent In one Ward, No. 2 £4B per cent. Mount Somers. March 31, 1884, £94 2 10 3 ... 4 Q... 253/ per cent Upper Ashburton. March 31, 1884, £9BB 17 11 ... £258 5 6 ...26 per cent South Rakaia. March 31, 1884, ‘ Per cent. £2,143 3 6 ••• £335 6 5 ••• £*S * 2 7 N.B.—No rates collected by this Board. The other Road Board accounts were not to hand. By publishing this statement ;rou will greatly oblige the Road Board.— Tam, etc., W. C. Walker. The notes of this meeting, kindly sup- , plied to us by a correspondent, were of a somewhat fragmentary character, from which we could not ascertain if Mr Feaobe’s resolutions were actually -carried. For tbe same reason we could not venture to publish the figures quoted by Mr Walker, but we now bare very much pleasure in publishing this addition to our report,— Ed. G.]