PUBLIC MEETING.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 86, 25 October 1879, Page 3

PUBLIC MEETING.

A public meeting of the ratppayer.3 of "Feilding was held m the. Sphpol'-roorn on Thursday evening, for. the purpose of discussing;tlie adviaabiiity of forming a Local Board for tho township. The. attendance was by no means, sp large, as the importance of the subject demanded. Mr. HAijCOiiBE was voted to the chair,, and m opening the proceedings said that as Chairman of the Manchester Highway Board, he ndight state that the Board were awure that .there* was a general feeling among the ratepayers m favor of having a Local Board, or other sjrslem of self-govern-ment, and had come. to the conclusion that it was their, duty to take theunitiative m, the matter. They had thej-efoVe- called a meeting of the ratepayers, to ascertain niore definitely their views on. v the matter. He thoughtit would' le. well for, the ratepayeri to take the management of the roads into their blwp hana^i. As Chairman of the meeting he. would not offer any lengthened remarks, but Mr. Mifcarthur had taken the trouble. to draw up^ some, utatistics, and, as Treasurer to the Highway Board, would be able, to gixe. them some valuable information on the subject. He woujdobserve. however., that he. was sorry tvhajfelihere. was not a larger attendance, as he thought the best way of arriving at a satisfactory' concl.uision was to take tbe/opinions of different speakers; who wohld^ be sure'fco, speak on the subject from diff.erent; ppi«,ts of view. Mr. MaoAbthub spnke at considerablelength. He said fciiat as. Treasurer to the •Highway Board, he. .had . thought that., it would be as well to draw up some; ptatistics sho wins the working of that body. They were, a^wave thati the Boards had been m

existence' a little more than three years. In taking out the figures he would remark that the accounts up to March last had been audited" and therefore there could be no mistake about them, and with regard to those for the period from the Ist of April last, he had taken them out very carefully ; but if any of those present doubled their accuracy they could verify them at the office of the Highway Board.." During the first nine months, up to 31st March, 1877, the expenses were— Road construction ... £132 7 8 Maintenance ...... .8 0 0 Working expenses ... 24 16 4 Inutile. following year, ending 31st March, 1878- : * Road consruction ... £1785 15 2 ' Maintenance 170 5 6 Working expenses ... 216 19 6 In the year ending 31st March, 187*9— „ . Road construction . . . £2772 6 7 Maintenance ... ... 390 16 7 Working expenses ... 20618 7 From Ist April, 1879, to Ist October, 1879— lipiid construction ... £444 1 6 Maintenance 696 12 6 Working expenses ... 84 0-0 Itwould thus be seen that the working expenses were only 7-f per cent, on the expenditure. The financial position of the differentf Wards on Ist October inst., taking credit for the half-yearly subsidy then due, was^No. 1 Ward (Feilding, &c.) owed £17 11 1 „ 2 „ (Halcombe, &c.) „ ...149 10 10 „ 3 „ !.. „ ... 0 0 7 „ 4 „ was due ...102 13 8 „ 5 „ (The Mills) owed ...14112 1 „ 6; „ (Ashurat)... . „ ... 26 12 2 If supposing that a Local Board were immediately! constituted, its revenue would be for the first year, £733, made up of — rates, current year, £400, and subsidy on last year's] rates, £333, Halcombe Local Board would have a revenue of £409 7s. 6d., viz., rates, £232.75.5 d.; subsidy, £177. With regard to the question of future local governnient,' there was no doubt that a feeling existed m favor of it. .The Highway Board felt that the township had overgrown its powers of management, and wished to be relieved of the responsibility; whilst the ratepayer's wished to have the management of their affairs m their own hands. With' regard to the form of local governmennt— whether that of a municipality*or a local board— opinions might be divided. There 'had been a meeting some months ago to discuss the advisability of forming the township into a municipality, and a resolution was then passed that it was not advisable. ; He had looked carefully through the- Acts ; relating, to both boroughs and . local boards. He. had", as they were aware, a large interest m Feilding — as large,* if not larger, than any other ratepayer— rand it consequently behoved him to look well into the. matter, so as to have the form of local, government which wpuld most benefit the township. He •had, after well studying the matter, come to the" decision that it was better to have a Local Board. The arguments m favor of a • municipality .were several. First,' there was what he might term the mutterof prestige. If. they had a municipality it would show to outsiders that the township had progressed to that state when a municipality was obtainable. To do this the township must have 250 resident householders. Whereas a township having only a score or two of householders might constitute themselves into ft Local Board, if two-thirds of them agreed to do so. The argument was to some extent a substantial one, b,ut still it was . made a good deal of by many. Another . reason m favor .of a municipality was, its powers to borrow, and some person* attached much importance to this. It was true that. Government had insei-ted a clause m tiie Act. giving boroughs power to borrow, but they had also put m another clause limiting , the rate of interest to 7 per cent. This limitation did not make much matter to large towns' -which went m for their £100,000 at a time, and which they obtained from capitalists at Home; but with small towns, which wanted only some £10,000 or £20,000 it was different. No capitalistwould care to-lend money at 7 per cont. on i such fluctuating security as Lorough rates, ! while much betterinterest could be- obtained on landed security, Masterton had endeavored to borrow, "and so .had Palmerston, but both had failed m the attempt. Palmerston had issued debentures to a snmir . extent, but it was only to property holders m the borough wanting improvements. He did not consider these the advantages of borrowing powers, which he thought would lay rather m introducing foreign capital, and-^ constructing new roads with it, and paying the interest, and a small sinking fuud, outof the rates. There was another argu meat m favor of uumio'p.dii'es, and that was that Government, gave them endowments, which local boards did not get. If they wished for an endowment, therefore, they must have a municipality. But he did not think Government would be able to go •pp.' giving endowments much longer. Those were the arguments m fuvor of having a municipality wlnoh had suggested thom- > selves to him. Other speaker*, might have additional reasons for preferring to have a 1 . municipality rather than a Local Bjard. If ' so he should be glad to hear them, for ho was not. bigoted, and his object was simply to get the best possible foi'in of local government. The powers of the two bodies wore similar, with -the exception of the borrowing powers enjoyed by municipalities, only a very strong argument m favor *»f having a (Locahßoard was, that they would, m that case, : :get a sulwidy of £2/for. £.1. of "rates, while as.a municipality they would get only £1 forj£lT' As the rates' were £400, by h.lvirjg, a municipality they would lo*e £400, a'sum which he thought the "prestige " to which he'had referred would not compensal c for the loss of. Another point was that m the Municipal Corporations Act there were so many stipulations as to how boroughs should be worked, that the * expenses were heavy. It' was only' fair to state— which he had omitted doing before— that licenses, fees, &6., were paid to boroughs direct. In the' case of Feilding these would amount to £199. But then an the other hand as a Local Board tbey would get this amount - back from the County Council m the shape of expenditure. If they formed themselves into a.municipality, they separated from the County. When the County was first- started; the Northern portion was' greatly; outweighed, by the Southern" members, and they could not get fair-play. They therefore got up a petition for SeparaI tion, and though they had complied with all the conditions of the. Act, Dj\ Pollen had rejected it a few days before. the Government bf which he was a member had ceased tp exist. But the Separation move-. "merit*; though it had had no direct effect m the direction intended, had nevertheless been, attended with one beneficial result — it had conduced to their obtaining a fair share of County expenditure. Foxton had been declared the County town, but h*d th>,district bgep fairly represented, Palmerston w)u)fl, have. enjoyed the. distinction. They bad always had. it before their eyea^tp make Feilding tlie' .'Coup ty town, but they were not strong -enough. But the time was coming, when Feilding must be made the County towp. Palnierstop was more ctnt ral, biuV ; having taken itseif out of the. County by raristituting.i'iself a nmiiieipality, it had do,bar.red itself of the privilege, for, the Council very properly considered that it would, not be. fair to make that n County town which contributed nothing - to the I County revenue. - Foxton wai at the ex- |

treme end of the County so far as rates and population were concerned, for although the Horowhenua Riding was a large one, extending to Otaki, the land was mostly m the hands of tbe Natives, and Native lands paid no rates. Feilding was more central, and the councillors cbuld come up by the morning train, transact the business, and return home m the evening, sinstead of having to remain away all night, as:at present. If they formed themselves^, into a municipality, they did away with their chance of being made the County town, and that was not .the merely nominal honor which many seemed to think. Such were the arguments pro and con with regard to Local Boards. [The speaker then read some clauses from the Act bearing on the constitution of Local Boards.] Whatever change took place, it was very necessary to go m. for economic management, otherwise the rates would be all swallowed up m expenses. He was bold enough to say that there was no Highway Board m the colony that could show so small a per-centage for working expenses as their own, amounting to only' 7£ per cent. A Local Board could not expect so small a per-centage, as the amounts involved would be much smaller. It. was a very difficult matter, however, to convince the ratepayer that they had had their fair share of the expenditure. There was one remark that he would make before sitting down, und that was, that if they did not pay their rales, they could not do the work required. He had now stated all the arguments m favor of and against either form of local government, but if there were any questions which he could explain, he would be happy to do so (applause). He would move — "That a committee be appointed to take the necessary steps to have a Local Board const itiited for Feilding. Mr. DmntMOND seconded the motion. Mr. Sherwill inquired whether municipalities and Local Boards received the same subsidies ? Mr. Macarthur thought he had made himself clear on that point. He had brought under their notice that by having a 'municipality they would have £100 a year m subsidies. Mr. Nathan asked what the amount of working oxpenses would be if they had a Local J3oard ? Mr. Macarthur could not say exactly, but believed that it would be at least £120 per annum. Dr. Johnston a?"ffed what the advantages | of haviug a Local Board would be ? Mr. Macarthur said that the great advantage would be that the people would know that they were getting their fair share of the expenditure, on wliich point now tbey seemed very dubious. I Dr. Johnston would like to know what | ' the amount of work was that had been done m Feilding, and where ? ' Mr. Macarthur gave the information sought, reading out all the items since the Board had been m existence. He explained that No, 1 Ward had considerably overdrawn, its share, and lately no new work had, on that account, been undertaken, only maintenance, which had increased vei-y much of late, and was now costing the Board, for the whole district, about £60 a a month ; and that was the re-ison why. the resolution re narrow tires had been put. m force. This was hard on the carters no doubt, but they had been sent to the Board not as the. representatives of the carter?, but of the. whole bf the ratepayers generally. 1 The Chairman pointed ont their two main roads were County roads., and so long as the remained a part of the County, those roads would be maintained by the County. After some further que9tioas on 1 points of detail had been replied te, The Chairman said that he was surprised to find the ratepayers so supine m the matter- of having a Local B'»ard. Contrasting such a body with the Highway Board, he nii^ht observe that independent of money mutters, which were about six if one aad a half a dozen of the other, he thought it was a great thing to have a body of men to refer to. It would also give ihe commissioners a training for theu- duties as , Councillors when Feilding should be constitute!'a municipality, The wants of the town were* so large that it was impost hle for 'one man to satisfy the majority of Ins constituent-*, and therefore he said it would be better to have a Local Board. The speaial rate which Local Boards wore empowered to levy, would be another great advantage. The shilling m the £ rite could do nothing appreciable m the foi-niAtion of roads, and he did think that the town should be uijder the people's special management. Mr. Maoarthtjb would observe that there was not a township between Wellington and New Plymouth that had so many miles of road as Feilding had, Mr. MATSMOB/moved as an amendment — "That the meeting be adjourned for a fortnight, m order to allow the ratepayers time, to thiuk over the matter, and to decide wliich form of government they would adopt." He thought it was unfair that a small meeting like that should com uiit the whole of the ratepayers to any particular couiMe. Mr. Nathan pointed out that the pet ition would have to be sigued by two-thirds of ' the ratepayers, nn:l hoped Mr. "Maysmor would withdraw his amendment. Mr. Pooii seconded the. amend ment, wliich sffcer some further discussion was put and lout. The original motion was then put to the meeting, and carried uiviuinuusly. The following wtere appointed members of the committee — Messrs. J. C. Thompson, F. Thompson, Macarthur, Halcombe, Dr. Johnston, Blackmore, Richard Price, Chamberlain, Drummond, W. Baker, Gr. Lyne, senr., W. Reading, Pcnrson, and Cupper. | The meeting then separated.