The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1877.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 62, 20 February 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1877.

The action taken by the members of the Akaroa County Council in adjourning for a month the discussion of the question—whether the Counties Act should be brought into force in its entirety, or whether the County Council should bo simply a distributive body, appears to have been conceived in a wise spirit, and to have borne good fruit. At the meeting of the Council held on Thursday last, the discussion was resumed, and, although, the argument was all on one side, the debate throughout was characterised by that temperate expression of opinion, which ought always to mark the proceedings of public bodies. The speeches delivered by the Chairman and Mr. Baker are especially worthy' of serious consideration. Most incontestably did those gentlemen set forth the great advantages which would accrue to the County if the Act were adopted in its entirety, and the Council instead of being a mere sham, were to become a body instinct with vigorous life. Indeed no attempt was made even to dispute the positions laid down by them, or the facts adduced in support of those positions ; the only attempt made at a contra argument was, a reiteration of the cry of expense, and the danger of having two bodies, each professing the power of taxation ; statements, the fallacy of which, we have proved over and over again. Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the discussion which took place on Thursday, was the speeches of Mr. Fleming, the member for Port Levy, and Mr. Hay, who represents the Eiding of Pigeon Bay. With a manly straightforwardness which does them honour, those gentlemen avowed that since the previous meeting their views had undergone a change, and they now believed that it would be for the benefit of the whole County if the Act were adopted in its entirety. We are not disposed to blame Mr Gebbie and the three gentlemen who act with him for the course they have taken. We believe them to be actuated by pure and conscientious motives, but they have accustomed themselves to look upon the question from ;

too contracted a point of view. Instead of considering what would benefit the County as a whole, they appear to look only at the advantages likely to \ accrue to the respective Ridings or rather Road Boards they represent. That such is the case is clear from the observation .made by Mr. Priest when he said—" Districts like Okain's would be taxed to keep up fine roads outside." " And when asked by Mr. Baker—" How about the construction of roads to your place ?" Mr. Priest replied—" We will do as we have done for years." That is, we suppose, do without them, be content with the old bush tracks, and care nothing for improvement and progress. Alittle examination of this principle will, show how utterly selfish it is, and opposed to those principles of government seeking the welfare of all the governed, and not of a particular portion. To act on the principles enunciated by Mr. Priest, wonld be to live isolated from the rest of the world, careless of what went on beyond a small locality, so long as it did not affect tlio inhabitants thereof. Local self-govern-ment of such a kind, would not be worth having, it would be like entrusting the Government of a large district to a number of petty parish vestries, each with its own little interest to serve, and caring nothing what became of the others. It would be government, not even by cliques, but by small coteries, which would inevitably end by barring all progress, and keeping matters as they had been for years. We do not think that the constituency of the County of Akaroa will, taken as a whole, deem it desirable to perpetuate such a system of local self-government, which will undoubtedly be the case if the administration of local affairs be left solely to the Road Boards by the County Council emasculating itself, and becoming merely a distributive body. As to the action taken by the Selwyn County Council—whatever that action ma y be—it ought not, as was pointed out by Mr. Baker, to influence in the slightest degree the members of the Akaroa County Council, because of the dissimilarity of the circumstances of the two Counties. Setting this, however, aside, the argument which we have used against entrusting the local self-govern-ment of a district to several small bodies, each with a different interest to serve, will apply with equal, if not greater force, to a district so extensive as the Selwyn County.