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Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1921, Page 2

The attitude of the County Council representatives on the subsidy question brought to the surface also the attitude of the local bodies on the system of subsidy itself. This was expounded very ably by the President of the Conference, Mr .lull, who said that tlio present subsidy is a survival of a system inaugurated borne 36 years ago for assistance to local government, while the whole conditi/ons of counties has absolutely changed. Valuations have advanced fivefold, tenfold, and f.weulyfuld, tile rating power of counties has been doubled, roads and bridges have multiplied, yet the same archaic mailed of subsidy has persisted to this day. The effect of such an inequitable system to-day is that we have an extraordinary range of subsidy, which in some counties is only equal t) about 1a in the £1 on the general rate, and rising to perhaps,. 7s 6d in the £1 in the lightest-rated and smallest counties the average subsidy works out on the figures for the year ending March 1920 at about 2s (id. in the Cl. Tint general rates collected amounted to £1,115.809. while t he* subsidy nan

£1117,002. During tlie Mine v**;ir grants : in aid of K]X>ri:il works in counties amounted fo £IBo,IGB. All. or Hourly all, public men denounce the system of grants as a general method of neststing counties. It is neither a <le_ sirahle tier an economical method, hut still it goes merrily on. A propea and equitable system of .subsidies would is move largely the need of any grants except in undeveloped districts and special cases. “A system,” t'idaied Mr Jnil, “which refutes any subsidy upon any revenue produced by a rate

exceeding throe-farthings in the £ and stops abruptly at C 2500, irrespective of the size of the county on the total rate collected, is like providing lifeboats for duck ponds and gum-boots for the* deep sea. f am a firm advocate of greater assistance to county councils, and assistance upon a more equitable basis, and 1 am assured that, with the' removal of the incentive*, to sub-divide counties which tlio present subsidy provides, we shall find a' tendency to amalgamate small counties will take the place of sub-divisions.” This subject having been revived ill so clear and forcible a' manner, is sure to make tlio point a very prominent one when tlio Highways Bill is under consideration, for members of Parliament an certain to he advised hv the local bodies within their district for tho need of reform, along lines propounded by the local governing bodies themselves. A meeting of gold producers held at Thames decided to petition Parliament for compensation for loss on gold sales during the war. it being stated that the add had had to he sold to the Bank of New Zealand for £4 an ounce, loss Is dej l war tax and 3d insurance, and tlint 'afterwards it was sold in London at prices up to CO os. An authority explained the position hi a representative of the “New Zealand Herald” recently, mentioning that he did not think the, larger gold pr-idiie-ing Concerns were represented at the meeting. During the war, he said the Imperial Government decided to requisition all the gold produced, at the pre-war figure. The sum of £4 r-n ounce had been quoted, but (his was not a fixed quantity. Standard gold (22 carat) sold before the war ht £3

( 17s 9<l, find p'Ure gold at £4 4s IOJd. The Bank of New Zealand, he continued, was not the buyer of rwiuisitioned gold; it merely acted as agent of the Imperial Government. Ho believed that much of the gold so received by the Bank of New Zealand was not exported to Britain. The quotations of the increased value of gold were not mint prices, for the Briiish mint still paid about the pre-war price for gold. The figures possibly were quotations for gold required ns a metal. It was (piite possible that China and Knstern countries had been paying above the mint values for gold used as a metal. Since the gold requisition ended New Zealand gold had been sent to America. but its mint value there was not higher as far as he knew, the only advantage of using that] market, being the favourable rate of exchange. It seemed hardly possible for the mint values of gold to tie greatly increased without upsetting the basic value of the sovereign and creating chaos in fin nine. At tile same time gold producers could hardly he expected to he (Kintent with the pre-war prices of gold during a period when the price of labour and everything else rose to so great an extent. No doubt the goldminers of Westland and Otago would co-operate with their Auckland comrades in petitioning>Parliament, if the necessary lead were given, and a move might be made in that direction now while Parliament is sitting.