King Country Chronicle Saturday, Dec. 19th, 1914. EXPENDING GOVERNMENT GRANTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 731, 19 December 1914, Page 5

King Country Chronicle Saturday, Dec. 19th, 1914. EXPENDING GOVERNMENT GRANTS.

The discussion which took place at tha last County Council meeting concerning the expenditure of Government grants re-opened a question which has frequently, been the subject -of consideration by the local body. Reduced to a plain issue the Whole matter is simply one for the exercise of common-sense in the interest of the County ratepayers. As was pointed out by the engineer the staff of the Council is kept busily employed administering the expenditure of loan and subsidy moneys. In resnect to Government grants it i 3 probably in the interest cf the ratepayers to have the grants expended by the Government Department. The Department is in a position to carry out the work quicker and no de : ay can ensue as is frequently the case where the expenditure is undertaken by the local bod?. In the case of the County Council undertaking the expenditure of grants tha engineering staff cf the Council has to prepare estimates, plans and specifications which have to be submitted for ap-

*foval by the Government Department, and until such approval 13 obtained no work can be done. Where a considerable numbsr of small grants are concerned this means a great amount of work for the staff of the local body, which would otherwise be done by the Department officials, to say nothing of tha delays caused by waiting for the approval of plans. In certain case 3 it may bs found advisable for the losal body to undertake the respjnsibirty of expanding grants, but the experience of this district shows that the local body is usually kept sufficiently busy with the administration of loan and subsidy money without burdening the staff with the administration of comparatively small grants which can be o-ore expeditiously deals with by the staff of the Government Department.