The Dominion THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1910. A LESSON FROM VICTORIA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 791, 14 April 1910, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1910. A LESSON FROM VICTORIA.

In the recent discussions of the position of local bodies under the State Guaranteed Advances Act not enough attention has been given to the fact that the Government has brought upon itself tho often unreasonable outcries of. some of those bodies which have been unable to obtain advances. There never was any real necessity for the Act: it was passed as part of a plan devised with the object, not of assisting the finances of the country, but of confusing the facts about the national indebtedness. A good many people no doubt realised that its first result would be to give an impulse to tho loan-raising activities of the local bodies. Ministers had dropped hints that an epoch of opportunity !to borrow was about to set in as a result of Sie Joseph Ward's visit to England, and in these circumstances the Government. cannot divest itself of its responsibility for the loan-hunger that it cannot satisfy and that it now does not hesitate to rebuke. We recur to the subject not only because De. Findlay has made another statement as to what he calls "the true province of the Statute"—the boundaries of which, by the way, are purely arbitrary, and are evidently treated by Ministers as very different from the.boundaries they indicated prior to the enactment of the Act—but because there is involved in 'it a question that has received a good deal of attention in our columns,' and that is. causing some discussion in Victoria.

Jusfc as our own Government 'is saying ; "No" . every day to applicants for the benefits of the Act; so the Victorian Government is very busy at present refusing applications for road grants. "Scarcely a week passes," said the Melbourne Argus ■ in an editorial last week, "without the Minister for Public Works being put on the defensive by municipalities with a claim of this kind, on-tho Treasury." Our contemporary realises that the Govern-, meht must expect to be pestered so long as the present system prevail since each local body, will naturally try to. obtain as. big a share of the vote as. it can. Exactly the same conditions of affairs obtains in New Zealand, riot only in respect of advances under last year's Act, but in respect of public works expenditure. Whoreas,. however, no Minister in New Zealand dreams of suggesting the obvious remedy for the,,wasteful and demoralising . system, of local dependence on the Executive's goodwill, tho Victorian Minister for Public Works-has frankly admitted that the importunity of the local bodies only emphasises the need for the establishment of a main roads board for Victoria. The Argils declares that although the wisdom of this reform is not denied by any intelligent and unbiased man, yet "no Government ever finds time—or courage—to :take the subject- up in earnest," and this for reasons which will bo thoroughly appreciated in New Zealand:

It cannot be denied, says the "Argus, that the reform wo have so continuously advocated is not a subject which a Ministry can bo expected to take up with muoh .relish. Thero have -been times when a generous practical recognition of the justice of a municipality's claim for road money has saved more than one Government a lot of potential trouble; and as long as votes are votes and members feel the expediency of being good "local mon" the lover will not rust for. want of use. It has been stated by a recent visitor that political considerations have a good deal more to do with the administration of publio affairs in Australia than the publio interest has, and •the charge is, unfortunately, not altogether without foundation.

Our contemporary goes on to show how the extreme multiplication of local roads authorities has militated against the formation and maintenance of a rational system of good main roads. "If settlers," it says, "are to be encouraged and the country developed, the main roads must be laid out aTid built and kept in order on a coherent plan, and the money spent first where it is most urgently needed. The general inter- 1 est of the State is, in principle, as much concerned in tho proper management of the roads as of the railways, and,it is equally necessary that the control of them should be placed 'in the hands of one central authority." The principlo of this proposed reform is identical with the principle, which we have constantly advocated, • that the administration of the public works expenditure and of the railways should be taken out of the hands of Ministers. Only by the vesting of control in the hands of independent boards, which will be free, as Ministers cannot be, from the pressure of voting power, and able, as Ministers are not able, to consider only tho general public interest, can the country be relieved of the waste and demoralisation of the present system of political control. As we have more than once shown in these columns, the lcadinr statesmen of Britain, France, and America arc firmly convinced of the soundness of this principle. Can Now Zealand decently reject such a body of testimony as that?