COUNTY COUNCIL WORK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 106, 21 May 1937, Page 11

COUNTY COUNCIL WORK

Does Size oi Area Affect EflSciency NEEDS OF BACK-BLOCKS * ' One thing that I have "been told is that a county of the size of Kawke's Bay cannot be properlv administered," said the Hon. W. E. Parry, Minister of Internal Affairs, while addressing members of the Hawke's Bay County Council yesterday on the question of amalgaanation of local bodies. "I have been told that it is tco big for efficient administration and that the services which the council is providing are suffering accordingly. It has been said to me that the roads in the Hawke's Bav Coiuity do not compare favourably. with roads in other parts of the Dominion where the councils are smgller units. One of my purposes in meeting you is to ask you tn give me the answer to those alleg.v tions. "On the same line of tliought, 1" have been told that in big ccnntics, the back country is not lookcd aftcr. As a matter of fact, I have been told that the back country in Hawke's Bay ia very poorly administercd, and 1 lrav* also been told that it is uecesfcary tv have a small county so that the necds of the back country settlcrs can be acb' quately catered for." He said at the outset that he was not at all impresscd with the idea tliat a sniall county was necessary to enable back-block settlers to get proper trcatment. He T^as as concerned as anyone else with the problems of baek-block settlers. He had lived in the baekblocks himself, and he knew what the back-block settlers' had to contend with. They deserved every encouragoment that could be given them, but as a gr.iding principle he tliought that Ihe vystem of local government should be so framed that the good country was carrying with it a fair proportion of the back countrj', and that the local Lodies were giving to the back-block sctllers all the help and consideration that they could „ "Back-Block Settlers "Without touching on the subject of what the back-block settlers have had to contend with in dajis gone by," said ALr Parry, "I think that there is a different psychology to-day in regard to back-block settlers. I think that Governments of the day and local bodies who are treatitfg their jobs seriously, are sufficiently imbued with the' needs of back-block settlers, as fonning an essential part of the development* of Ihe Lominion, that it does not require claruour on their part to obtain for them their legitimate requirements. I really think we have got beyond that stage, and that there is no reason why a big county should not attend adoquately to the nceds of the back-block settlers. "I am told that the peusonal touch is essential to the proper development of a county, and that the necessary degree of personal touch is missing in regard to big counties, but I am told by county councillors admmistering countiee of about the size of one or two ridings in the Hawke's Bay County and with very few real problemn to fac-e, that the efficieney of the administration of those counties will decrease if there is not the opportunity for some degree of personal touch with ratepayers and the district, as is existent to-day. Personal Touch "I have pointed out in reply to this assertion that the development whicn has taken place within modern times in regard to transport and communication generally is such that the degree of personal touch which is necessary on the part of n local body member i» possible to-day over areas very much larger than was the case when the present counties were formed. Transport to-day is relatively easy; communication from one part of the Dominion to anotber is good; telephones, wireless and other facilities are available f'Jmaking immediate contact. The. same facilities were not available, or wce not available to the same degrec, thirty,.forty or fifty years ago, and yet I am told that the same degree of personal touch iB necessary to-day as wa i the case then'."The Minister said that he was anxious to lay the foundations- to bring about this long overduo reform of local government. He had appealed to the local bodies to eo-operate with him in the attempt. While some of them had sho\yn a desire to . co-operate, he had not received from a number of them that manifestation of help and gooilwill that he thought he rightly deserved. Instead, they were really drawmg red herrings across the trail. This, as he had said, was a big question, and one that wauted to be tacklcd oarnestly and carefulJy. "I am uow askipg you for a measure of lielp to assist me in carrying on this important compaign," he coneluded. In thanking the Minister for his address, the chalrman, Mr F. B. Logan, said that he could rely upon a good deal of Co-operation. from the couuci! towards the bringing about of this much-needed reform.