Connty Suspension.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 108, 11 April 1885, Page 2

Connty Suspension.

The question of suspending the Cduu. ties Act m the Manawatu County was brought forward at the last meeting of the council, says the Marton paper, a | proposition to that effect being brought forward by Gr Stewart at the request of a number of his constituents. His arguments m support of the motion were that government by Boad Boards was more efficient and less expensive ; that the district roads would be better looked after by Road Boards than by the Coun« ty Council ; that the chairman of a Boad Board was prohibited from receiving a salary ; and that the ratepayers could more easily make their wants known. He stated that while the working expenses of the Sandon • Carvarvon Boad Boad. had only been about £800 for "four years ; the expenses of the Manawatu County Council exceeded that amount m one year. Several councillors urged that the motion was inopportune, seeing that the Government next session would bring m a measure of local goveminent having special reference to County Councils. The chairman went further than this. He said the mover had brought forward no facts really bearing on his proposition. He (the chairman) had taken the trouble to look through some statistics on the point, and the result was that he found that the county system was by far the most eeo. nomical form of local government. The Manawatu County Conncil administered £11,186 6s 7d ot revenue for 4-1087 Is 3d, equal to Is ll£d m the £, or nearly 10 per cent. ; the collective Road Boards m the same county administered .£5961 8s 4d of revenue for £852 19s Id, equal to 2s lOd m the £, or nearly 15 per cent. The county system generally through* out the colony would compare favourably with other local systems. Taking the whole of the counties, the sum of £387,386 of rovenue^was administered at a cost of £40,287, equal to 2s Id m the £, or about 10 per cent. ; while the whole of the road and town boards m the colony administered £162,435 at a cost of £21,811, equal to 2s 8d m the £, or 13 J per cent. Several members spoke against the motion, and during the dis. cussion it was stated that the Otaki Boad Board spent m administering its finances 6s 8d m the £, and the old Manawatu Boad Board 29 1-9 per cent.! On the motion being put it was lost, only the mover voting for it.