The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4035, 1 February 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1876.

The Superintendent was plaped in a dilemma. yesterday from which he will find it difficult to extricate himself without giving offence to one or both of two large -parties. It seems that the North-East Valley Road Board have v not acquitted themselves to the satisfaction of nearly all or quite one half of the owners of property within its boundaries, and therefore they are desirous of carrying on the business of local self-government under another firm. It does not clearly appear what is expected to be gained by the change. Apparently the purpose of one party is to escape- becoming shareholders in a debt contracted by the Road Board, the amount of which.-has not’ been expended according to the ideas of the malcontents. We cannot pretend to judge which of the two parties has the best of the argument, although it is not difficult to divine the reason for the violent, bitter spirit manifested by both. The Road Board has evidently been placed in the difficulty so graphically described by bis Honor as “spreading a limited quantity of butter over an unlimited area of bread.” Apply the knife as a spreader, and use it as carefully and as skilfully as human hands can work, -human eyes’ perceive, and human minds direct, there will still be places that are so thinly scraped over as to taste more of the knife than of butter. The explanation of the difficulty id simply that the process is founded upon two mistakes—an error on the part of those who ’ have purchased bread at too great a distance from the mound of butter, and on the part of the operator in not placing a limit beyond which the spreading knife shall not be applied until an adequate supply has been obtained. If we were apt to learn.from that best of teachers, experience, it would have been manifest to us long ago that our whole plan of colonisation and' settlement has been loose and wasteful. ' (There has been no system in it. A patch of land has been ; laid out here and another there without having any definite relation to, or connection with each other, or with the general improvement of the country itself; and men haveboughtthpae patches on speculation, under the well-founded conviction that as the, wealth of the district increases, their holdings will become more valuable. In the lottery that has followed the sudden expansion of the country’s industry,, they hkye found themselves on the edge instead of in the centre, of improvement and othermen’s land more valuable than theirs, because, of being in the track on which money must first be spent to confer additional value on'the whole. It is .not that, their property has not increased in worth, but that it has not done so in proportion to that immediately affected by improved roads, and by being the centre of traffic. At the root of this love of change is ttio desirfe to have money spent on concentrating value on their own possessions. They use an argument, which has unfortunately led to more, waste of revenue than any other, “ we pay our assesment, and] have a right to have a share of the money spent in improving our property.” No one can deny this.;. • It is as clear as light, and as true as it is clear. But then comes the important question, how shall it be laid out to effect this purpose? Ask Mr A and he says, ‘ ‘ Iwant road making,to my farm and it will only be a little deviation to the south, and scarcely add achain to the length , of the mAin road. 1 have a right to jpe con- i, sidered, as I pay so. large an amount of taxes.” “ But,” says Mr J3, “I. pay as much as yon do,’:aad the road wiR be quite as (easily made by bending to the east, and my farm needs oneas.much^.yours.”, . And so individual claims to make or to mend a road or a fence or a bridge or a culvert go round the compass, and the “ butter will not cover

VV-'-v.-, the bread.” An independent, BoarcL woiflife take a stand on principle, to efficiently carrying out first tlio2e workiif that are absolutely to -add to the ? value of thfe.-vvhgle district, andpaftfcr these hjad they woMdQieal with I etioh Bucceeriing case as it presfntM itself. Of necessity sohiy: Would., have forfait foul their broad, beingbuttered, but when their; turn arrived,, .instead of ' s a ■, scraping, effect of whichftduld be to resulting from attenuated efforts,to do what is impossible, they would receive.ample" and sufficient supply. The step taken in multiplying municipalities is to destroy the ability to improve through wasting money .on salaries fcSirm heavy dm-snmff besides . ensuring the employment of inefficient servants; and however beautiful in theory, municipal government a 'HR cannbt be profitably. carried.; We are inclined to think that already mistakes have been made in that direction in the suburbs of Dunedin, and that tW effeotwiU'beto retard; instead of to advance' theiutererti of the new corporate Patriots.,