TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1981.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3138, 19 July 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1981.

Mb R. Macalister is evidently under the impression that the duties of Provincial Auditor include the office of Superintendent of Provincial District Funds. After leaviug Waipawa, where Mr Macali'iter expended " much time aud trouble " in auditing the County acji'unte, that iciportaut officer proceeded wthe West Coast, where he wrestled with the Patea County's monetary affairs. At-pended to vlie statement of the accounts of that County is the auditor's folic wing memorandum :—" It is observed that the Ckfeirraau vo the Council drew at-lary at the rate r>f £50 per anoum, also ti avelling expenses at 30s per day (lately reduced to 20s) for each day during which he presided at the Council. The law providenthat • The Council may from time %o time voix* such reasonable sums as it shall doem sufficient to defray the travelling expenses of Councillors coming from a -istauca to attend meetings of the Council.' The Chairman resides in Patea, very near to tbe Council Chamber. !No travelling expenses could therefore have been reasonably incurred in goiDg to find from thi Couuoii Chamber to his xesidence. The total sum paid to the Chairman for travelling expenses during the year is stated to be £45 10s., which amount it is requested be refunded to the County Fund Account. Of course, if it can be shown that any part of this expenditure hiw been legally incurred in consequence of the Chairman having had to return to Patea, from any great distance which he may have been from it, to meet the Council, euch part of the expenditure may be allowed." A more impudent interference with local government by a General Government officer can scarcely be imagined. The salary and travelling expenses, whatever they amounted to, had been voted by the Council, and formed a legal expenditure, and therefore the request that the amount be refunded is Bimply a piece of gratuitous impertinence. As it happened, however, Mr Macalisler's eagle eye only detected a mare's nest. The amount paid to the Chairman was for five years' services, and the sum that he received on that account he had presented to the hospital fund. It is no wonder that the county system is condemned when General Government officers make it their business to prove to local bodies that local government is a ahari*,. The Patc-a County Council will, of course, treat Mr Macalister's memorandum with the contempt it deserves.