LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1436, 10 May 1912, Page 5

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

SPEECrfBVm RUSSELL

j£H%SEESENT waste,

®jfM«ftet&->Pren Association.) Pnlmerslon N., Ma;, fl Speaking on the Local Gororumcnl Bin., tho Hon. G. W„ Russell (Minister for In. tornal Affairs) said tho Hill had been hand. •od down to tho present Administration limits predecessors, find so far as the mhj4'ects wero concerned, they were going to make a'determined effort to place it on the Statute Book. There were between WW and 701) local bodies operating in Aew ileuiand for sno million people. Ju many of these bodies tho cost of management reached 25 to S3 per cent, of the rates collected, In somo cases the cost of management exceeded tho rates. It would be puerile to allow such it state, of things to continue. Tho Government had no desire to take awayany right? or any privleges, but to increnso the power and responsibilities of local bodies. They had no desire, to shunt tho responsibilities of Parliament so far as finances wero concerned on the people of the country, but tho time had conic when Parliament must not continue to be regarded as ;i milch cow to which any body of individuals could go to obtain what they wanted. There should be some sound system of finance, and there should Ira some responsibility placed on tiie locality that got the money. He hoped Dial (He day of the roads and bridges grants and subsidies to local bodies without responsibility would rcas-e. Mr. J. G. Wilson: "How will you (ix education?" Mr. Russell said it was | not intended that there should he any different as lo primary education, in that the locality should supply any funds for primary education, but when they came to the large demands for technical education they wero on another class of subject. While • the entire responsibility of primary education must lie maintained on (lie State, the responsibility for technical education and "embroideries" of that class must ho shared by those people who . wanted them and' bv the State. There were extravagant demands being made in tho large cities for hugi^technical colleges at tho expense of the , ' Not Pinned to Bill. The present Government did not nect" sarily pin itself down to all the details of the, Local Government Hill, as introduced by tho Ward Government. They desired to se« simplification, economy, efficiency, and a sense of responsibility on tho part of the committees for the working of local government, Nothing had been more subject to criticism than tho roads and bridges grants, and there had been no one more persistent in retaining . them than (lie gentlemen who professed to be most opposed to the system and opposed to (lie Government. Ho could name members of tho Opposition who had obtained thousand', and thousands more for their districts'than gentlemen on th* side of the Government. The system was bad. The conference at Wellington' on Mav 21 would comprise gentlemen who could 'bring to bear experience of local government. It was a conference of advice and of round-the-table talk on the. Local Government Bill, which would en- ' able (ho Government to sen whether New Zealand wanted local government reform, and what reform it wanted. A great number of offices would 1» abolished, and perhaps those so wiped out would object, but it was tho people of New Zealand to sav whether the present expensive, ridiculous multiplication, of local bodies should continue. If the people did want it to continue, they must accept tho inevitable, but it: represented n great waste o! power and of money. WEST COAST DISSATISFIED. (By Telegraph.-Press Association.) W'cstport, May 3. At a meeting of delegates from thsl Bnller and Iniuienhua local bodies tonight, Mr. D. .1. Williams, county chairman, was elected a delegate to proceed to tho Wellington conference on the Local Government Tiil!. Tho members present disapproved of being allowed to eiect onlv one delegate, holding that the interj csts of boroughs and county councils' in some respects conflicted, and Hint both should have had the opportunity of representation at tho conference.