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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3625, 23 February 1883, Page 2

At the complimentary dinner given to Mr •T. Bennett last night that gentleman wan not quite fair in the comparison he drew between the old Provincial Government and the existing county system. He is reported to have said that the latter was far less cumbrous, less expensive, and more efficient than tho former ; that, with a road overseer and a clerk, tho county did its work. Wo have been all along under the impression that there are two other officers employed by the county, namely, a treasurer and an engineer. The old Provincial Government had no larger stall', and it had to do the work that is now performed by three County Coimcils, a Municipal Council, a 'Waste Land;-; Board, a Harbor Board, and an Education Board. We do not say that each in its department these local bodies are not doing their allotted duty more cinciently fhan the work of the whole was done by the Provincial Government. But no comparison can be drawn between the past and present systems: the former was simplicity in its most perfect form; the present is complicated and expensive, but it may bo in some respects more efficient. Where the great diil'erencc between the two is that the weakness and comparative insignificance of existing local bodies offer no check to the increasing power of the Central Government, whereas so long as the provinces existed Ministerial in Huence and Ministerial vagaries were reduced to a minimum, as were also central administrative expenses. If the count v system is less cumbrous and less expensive than provincialism, the difference lias been more than balanced by the increased cubrousucss and cost of administration from Wellington.