The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, APRIL, 12.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 495, 12 April 1881, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, APRIL, 12.

We reprint the following article from the New Zealand Public Opinion, more I commonly known as tlie Saturday Advertiser. There is no doubt whatever that the opinions expressed therein are very wide!* shared, and may be well worth consideration at the hands of the ratepayers of the Peninsula at the present time. If the great master of English fiction had been born in New Zealand, English literature would have certainly lost the portraits of Mr Bumble, the beadle of J the parish vestry in " Oliver Twist." , Out though Bumbledom lias not a local ' habitation in New Zealand, though parish vestries are non-existent, let us not be cast down, for have we not Road Boards ? Oh for a New Zcalar.d Dickens to give a picture, plain and unvarnished, of Road Boards and their members ! Peculiar are their ways, singular the disposition of the money entrusted to them ; greater even than Bumble is the chairman of the Board ! And yet if Hoad Boards were judiciously and economically administered, they might be made a great boon to the country. Theoretically the System is excellent ; in practice these Hoards get into the hands of a few who are re-elected year after year, and who become as autocratic, and, alas! often as venal as the " Clique " in Professor Aj toun's tale of " Drcepdaily Burghs." We have heard of one County Road Board, a prominent member of which is the local storekeeper ; and we have »dso heard that the amount of money expended in giving access to a ratepayer's property varies (singular fact) in exact proportion to the amount expended by the ratepayers at the store. But let a ratepayer patronise a rival, and the question of how much money will bo spent on his road becomes a very simple equation. We have heard of :u.other Board in which a, member one day, in moving that a certain payment be made by the Board, admitted thot the proceeding was illegal, and that the Board ran a risk in. paying the sum in question. But then—but then—the parties were deserving, the money was required ; in short, they were the next door neighbors, and the payment was made. We-liave heard of yet a third district where a most estimable young man resides. lie is a large proporty owner, but his property lies back from the main road. For lifteen years he has been the largest ratepayer in the district, and for all that time he has been indebted to the courtesy of a neigh oor for access to his property. Of course there is a road leading to it, but as it is a block road in hilly country it is utterly

useless, So no money has been expended on it. Lately this gentleman made an arrangement with his neighbor by which the neighbor agreed to convey a suitable road-lino to the local Board free of all consideration sav-.> the formation, and though for fifteen years this man had paid rates by which he had not benefited directly or indirestly to the amount of one half-penny, the local Hoard refused to grant his application. Nay, they did g-ant it in part, and at their next meeting rescinded their resolution. But at the second meeting there was present a declared personal enemy of the petitioner, who made no scent of his motive in pulling the wires which brought about the result. And if more instances were wanting let any of our readers take Up the country journals and see how frequent anil bitter are the complaints against aoacl Boards in their columns. There is but one remedy, and that is- an effectual one. Let each ratepayer in a road district interest himself in the local politics, and if—as is too often the case —the local grocer or publican is the moving spirit of the Board, and if the distribution of the Board's funds is regulated by the amount passed over the counter of public-house or store, then petition, petition, petition, till the Board merge in the County Council. We do not hold that County Councils are an unmixed good, but they are so far free from local pressure and influence that ratepayers have more chance of justice at their hands than at the hands of those haunts of Bumbledom, bad grammar, bad English, and bad speeches, called lload Boards.