GRANTS TO LOCAL BODIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1702, 19 March 1913, Page 8

GRANTS TO LOCAL BODIES.

PRESENT SYSTEM CRITICISED. STATEMENT BY HON. W FRASER (By Telegraph.—PreEe Association.) Auckland, March 18. The Hon. W. Eraser, who is now oil a tour of the north, arrived at liaikohe tonight from Whangarei. Tho important question of the alteration of tho present system of making grants to local bodies was touched upon "by a deputation to Mr. Eraser at Kawakuwa this morning, when members of the Bay of Islands County Council waited upon the Minister with reference to matters of northern interest. Mr. Martin, u member of the council, brought forward the question of finance, as applied to county councils and other local bodies. Local bodies should,, he said, bo assured of their finance, and the New South Wales system of graduated subsidies, similar to that now applied to hospital boards, appealed to the council as a good way out or the present difficulties. The Counties Act now prevented councils lroin undertaking expensive works, for it Said that expenditure'ior one year in each case must not exceed the council's i..jome. If the Act could be alterwl so that three years was substituted for ono year, the council was sure that it . would do a great deal of good, for it would permit works of an. expensive and permanent character being commenced and properly finished. Mr. Eraser said he abomiuatcd tlw present system of making grants to local bodies for certain roads. He had always thought that a classification scheme should be propounded, so that each local body should be granted a lump sum, and asked to make out its own estimates. _ A system had crept up, in fact, by which local bodies were now in the. habit of asking for six and seven times the number of grants which they knew they had $ony hope of getting. Anyone would then see that such a system made a Minister's work difficult, for with very imperfect knowledge of tho districts concerned, ho had to allocate money, and in many instances made grants in cases where other works would be more valuable to the district concerned. Ho could assure them that, as Minister for Public AVorks, ho would try to bring about an alteration of tho system which did not work for the best interests of the country.