The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1885 Local Government

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 96, 29 January 1885, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1885 Local Government

The mildness of the proposals of the Government as regards local bodies, will be a source of disappointment to a certain section of the supporters of the Ministry. Writing on this subject the Christchurch Press says : — " They expected grand changes amounting to a virtual restoration of the Provincial system. As we expected, however, the Government dealing with this subject with all the responsibility which the holding of office entails upon them, have discovered that it is hopeless to propose anything of the sort, for the simple reason that the country is very well satisfied with its local government machinery, and only wants more fuel in the shape of revenue to keep the machinery moving. We suspect that it is hopeless to look to the Premier for suggestions as to how this revenue is to be found. This Premier of ours is no doubt a very clever man, but his cleverness is not of the sort which shows itself in the construction of financial schemes, or indeed in any form of constructive statesmanship. The hungry local bodies must therefore not depend on the Premier for substantial aid in finding them in revenue. The fertile and scheming mind of Sir Julius Yogel may possibly be able to devise some scheme which may delude the local bodies and appease their clamours for a time, but it will only be for a time, for they must eventually find out that there is no way of getting revenue which does not in some form or other take that revenue out of the pockets of their ratepayers, and, therefore, that the more directly it comes from that source to the coffers of the local bodies the less waste will there be either in its collection or in its expenditure." Between the time of the delivering of his speech at Dunedin and that of the speech now in course of preparation, Mr Stout will have time to take counsel with his colleagues, whereby he will probably be able to shadow out a more popular scheme ; one which will either relieve local bodies of all responsibilities, or provide them with funds to carry out the scheme as it now stands.