LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 557, 15 November 1881, Page 5 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

To the Editor.

Sir, — As the above is a question that is exciting some interest at present, I have, with your permission, some remarks to make on the subject. I have seen several letters on the subject, some of formidable dimensions and marvellous prolixity, but fail to find anything practical in most of them. It is evident that some radical change is imperatively necessary, as the money required for public works in the Akaroa County is almost wholly derived from rates, and the cost of administration is out of all proportion to the means. I believe 1 am not very far wrong when I state that the working expenses of the various Road Boards are not far short of from 30 to 40 per cent, on their epital, and I believe in some instances this is below the mark. To put it in another way, it costs as much in the aggregate to spend £500 as it would to spend four times as tnuuh. I notice that the balance-sheet of the late County Council for the last sis months shows lhat their cost of management was £170 for doing literally nothing. This does not include the £20 honorarium. This obnoxious item will appear in the first balance-sheet of the new Council, who will have to accept the paternity thereof. It is needless to say that to levy rates and pay nearly one-half in spending. the remainder means bankruptcy. To prove the unpardonable apathy of the people in the Little River Biding, I may state that there were only three persons present at the nomination of a member for the County Council on the 10th inst. If a shilling in the £, has to be called for, they may possibly wake up.

Since the withdrawal of the Land Fund,

I am not aware that any material reduction has been made in cost of. management in proportion by the various local bodies in the county. Where Koad Boards in some counties have still considerable s'imsin hand derived from that source, the cost of expenditure is perhaps not so noticeable ; when that money is spent, and they have to fall back on rates, the necessity for a change will be irresistibly forced upon them.

As regards the Akaroa County Council and the various Koad Boards with whicli we are immediately concerned, I am of opinion that if the Boards were merged into the Council the whole of the correspondence, etc., can be done by one Clerk alone, and the engineering, supervision, etc., of all necessary works can bs done at a per centage on the cost of construction, and the same for collection of rates, &ay 5 per cent. The valuation for rating purposes at a lump sum for each riding, as a per centage, would be a. premium for excessive valuation. Now the fact is undeniable that the larger the number of administrative bodies the heavier must be the cost, and under the peculiar circumstances in which the Council is at present situated with regard to finance, and that the most rigid economy will liavd to be enforced. I am inclined to think that as the new Council is likely to be composed of men of experience, and who have been members of Road Boards at some time or other, that they ought to be able to manage the affairs of the- County at a much cheaper rate than obtained at present, travelling expenses and honorarium notwithstanding. By the bye, instead of a honorarium, why not a pension ? I noticed some time ago a proposition to take over the main roads by the Council Tin's would be adding still more to the cost of management, as the Koad Boardu could not reduce in proportion, and I would say take all or take none, and simply meet once or twice a year to allocate funds which would obviate the necessity of a permanent clerk. But lam decidedly of opinion that as we cannot get rid of the Council, it ought to be utilized to the fullest extent for the reasons above stated; were we still in receipt of the land fund the change would not be necessary.

There is another matter which I would recommend to the serious consideration of the ratepayers in general, and aspirants to a seat at the Council Board in particular. It may not be generally known that, under the original surveys, miles of useless and impracticable roads were marked off, and when roads require to be made to open up country to enable people to reach their property, compensation will have to be paid where of necessity the roads will have to pass through Crown-granted lands, and, indeed, has already been paid in some instances. Now, the question is, Is this to be paid out of general rates? I submit that it is utterly unjust to the ratepayers. The Survey Department ought to pay the cost, and I should impress upon the new Council the desirability of placing the matter before the Government through the member for the district.

One more item and I have done. The late Council proposed to ask the Government to allocate a sum of money for the purpose of keeping Lake Ellesmere at & low level. Why not include Lake Forsyth ? The letting out of the latter lake has hitherto been a charge on the rates of the Little River road district, which I contend is unfair, as the whole county is interested, the main road being the only outlet for stock from the Peninsula ; and when the railway is extended, it will be found that the latter lake is as difficult to deal with as the other. —Yours, etc., JAMES WILSON; Little River, November 12, 1881.