The Manawatu Standard. PUBLISHED DAILY. Suivant a verite WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1883. LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 3, Issue 32, 3 January 1883, Page 2

Manawatu Standard. PUBLISHED DAILY. Suivant a verite WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1883. LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

The financial position of the locaj bodies is beginning , to , , receive some consideration, and the alUmportatit question of ways and • tnr ans is being ; discussed from various standpoints. The Wanganui ITerald, reviewing the position, expresses, the opinion that the withdrawal. of -the subsidies, which on -the whole worked well, has seriously curtailed the power of the "rival oodles (that is Jtioad Boards and County Councils) to open up the country by means of roids and bridges. Nor has the system substituted been at all equal to the duties the bodies are expected to per? form. The Road Boards, it is true, have the power to borrow on the basis of special rates to provide interest and sinking fund equal to 9 per cent per annum ; but even were they^ to take advantage of this to the fullest extent, the fund is too small to provide each body with more than an insignificant dole. The Roads and Bridges Construction. Act which is meant to provide the Counties with funds to construct main roads, is likely to turn out a disappoint ment from a variety of reasons. In the first „ place, it is being administered apparently with the object of " choking off" the local bodies. In the next place the fund, which is utterly insuffi~ cient for the colonising purposes it is intended $o subserve, is greater this , year than it is ever likely to-be again, unless money be specially borrowed to replenish it. This year £100, OuO is to be transferred from the Public Works Fund to the "Main Roads ' Account," • c m order to give effect to this part of this Act during 1 the financial year commencingon the first day of April, 1882 " The permanent source' of supply to the Fund is the sale of Crown lands, and this we fancy will turn out to be one afflicted with chronic drought. There is to-be a sum not exceeding £100,000 from land sales transferred to the Fund, "or as- much lass as shall be received, from such sales after making the said deductions." As the *■* said deductions " -include the cost of surveys and ad' ministration of Crown lands, sums paid for rates. on Cr.own lands, the one-third returned to deferred payment blocks, and 20 per cent of the whole proceeds for opening up of lands before sale — we do not think there will be much left for the: Fund. But (remarks our (contern-v j porary) that is m the future, as most of .our constitutional changes have been — a golden bridge is the best advocate of change, however poor, the ptoßpect may be on the other 'side. ' -iViti'well, however, that the question of fun-is should be, considered at the same time that the. ratepayers are determining What system of local government they shall adopt.