THE LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19994, 11 January 1927, Page 7

THE LAKE COUNTY.

JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS.

BANQUET AT QUEENSTOWN.

(From Oub Own Coebespondent.) QUEENSTOWN, January 9. The jubilee of the Lake County was celebrated by a banquet at Queenstown last Thursday evening. Seated at the head of the table were the Hon. F. J. Rolleston, Mr William Reid (chairman of the Lake County Council) and Mrs Reid, Mr James Ritchie (chairman of Vincent County Council) and Mrs Ritchie, Mr A. Simson (Mayor of Queenstown) and Mrs Simson. In addition to the councillors in office, there were present ex-councillors and their wives, representatives of the Public Works Department, district representatives of the Bluff Harbour Board and Southland Hospital Board, and county officials. Mr William Reid, chairman of the Lake County Council, who presided, welcomed the guests. In doing so he expressed the council’s great pleasure at having the Hon. F. J. Rolleston with them as the Government’s representative. They all knew that they were celebrating the jubilee of the council, which met for the first time 50 years a.go, In this connection he would mention that of that body, as first constituted, only one member was now alive. This was Mr J. 0. M'Ardell, who was now living in Australia. In eponse to an invitation to be present at the jubilee celebrations, Mr M'Ardell had cabled: “Congratulations. Thanks for honour. Regret unable to attend.” After the loyal toast had been honoured, Mr P Reid was called upon to propose the toast of the “New Zealand Parliament.” He expressed his thanks for the honour done him in placing such an im- I portant toast in his hands, and also offered ; his congratulations to the chairman and councillors of the Lake County Council on their celebration of such an auspicious occasion. Mr Reid then went on to refer to the Government’s great in introducing the Counties Act. The settlers were thereby better able to get what they wanted, whereas under the old provincial system more often than not they had to go without. The speaker extended a welcome to the Hon. Mr Rolleston. Although he might not be very well known to the assemblage, he was the son of a man who was a well-known and honoured man in a former Parliament. Mr Reid thought the present Parliament compared very favourably with any other in the British Empire. Parliaments in New Zealand in the past had been good and clean, and the statesmen of the Dominion had also been respected in the conferences of the Empire. The present Parliament was composed of four parties, and in defence of the system it could be fairly said it had stood the test of time and was likely to continue. After referring to individual members of Parliament past and present, Mr Reid congratulated Mr Rolleston on his elevation to Cabinet rank. Their guest had only been a short time in Parliament before he received the honour, and as Mr Coates had quite a number to choose from, it spoke volumes for Mr Rolleston. His selection had also added another to the list of South Island members holding Cabinet rank. The Hon. F. J. Rolleston thanked the chairman and councillors for the honour and the privilege of attending their jubilee celebrations as the Government representative. He regretted that Mr Horn was not present, and could assure them that he had a great personal regard for their representative in Parliament. His criticism was not of a violent nature, but possibly this was because he had found the Government so satisfactory that he had nothing to say against it.— (Laughter.) Mr Peter Reid had mentioned the value of the county system. His friend was the Lakes representative on the Bluff Harbour Board, and in his (the speaker’s) estimation it was one of the best administered harbour boards in New Zealand. When acting in a similar capacity on the Canterbury board the speaker used frequently to hold up the Bluff board as an example in regard its careful and judicious borrowing. The speaker then referred to the serious drift of population to the north. On the Government Statistician’s figures, baaed on the last census, the South Island would have to lose two members to the North Island. There seemed no escape from it. There was a lot of conjecture as to who the victims would be. He was sure Mr Horn would say Wakatipu could not be wiped out. also that his electorate would not stand being made any larger. A commission would sit shortly and decide the question. The speaker concluded by thanking Mr Reid for his kind references to himself.

The next toast was “The Lake County Council.” This was proposed by the Hon F. J. Rolleston, who said it was in 1900 that the first made acquaintance with the Lakes district. On behalf of the Government, he offered the council hearty congratulations on attaining its jubilee. It was a good thing that in the hurly-burly I'fs there were occasions such as these when one might pause on reaching a milestone in history. , H was a good thing to pause and look back 50 years on the work of the pioneers who had carved their homes out of the wilderness. Local government was a very important function of any community. Lake County must be regarded as a very solvent county for it had few burdens or responsibilities. It was remarkable that its debt should be something less than £7OOO or £BOOO at the close of 50 years. In some of the northern counties very large sums were paid away annually in rates and interest. Lake County was the third or fourth largest county in New Zealand, but it was,one of the smallest as far as capita] vqlue was concerned. Southland had an ar,ga of 3852 square miles, and Lake 3712 square miles, thus showing them to be almost equal in size. But they were vast differences in the financial resources of the two counties Southland had 14j millions of property to come and go on, and their loan indebtedness was only £14,000, exclusive of the hydro-electric undertaking. This showed that in the South Island they wore prepared to pay their way as they went along instead of piling up responsibilities for posterity. Mr Rolleston then referred to the tourist traffic and the setback it received when the weekly service between Melbourne and Bluff was cut out. For some reason or other the trade had disappeared and the pasesnger traffic was disappearing too. To reinstate the weekly service would cost more than any Government cold give. The shipping companies maintained that the trade was not there and that tourists preferred to cross to Wellington, which was a better passage. But there was no reason why the traffic should not then come south, with a good ferry service such as they had. Waikatipu had a great asset m its magnificent scenery, and in another 10 or 12 years it should be much better known. The speaker then congratulated the chairman on his having occupied the chairmanship of the council for over 25 years. It was a very fine re-, cord and hij was sure the fact must be accounted for in some very good reason on the part of the ratepayers. In responding to the toast the chairman thanked Mr Rolleston tor his personal references. A chairman, however, could attain little success without the 00-opera-tion of his councillors. Mr Reid then made a brief review of the history of the county, carrying his audience on from 1877 when there was only one bridge (Victoria) on the road between Cromwell and Queenstown. Mr J. Cockburn (whose name was coupled with the toast) took the assemblage hack to the day's of the Provincial Government. I Other toasts honoured were; “Ex-Conn- | fillers.” proposed by Mr W. S. Reid and I replied to by Mr George; “Kindred i Bodies,” proposed bv Mr J. P. White and | replied to by Mr A. Simson (Mayor of Queenstown), Mr Jas. Ritchie (chairman of the Vincent County Council and ex-chair man of the Vincent Hospital Board), and Mr J. W. Miller (district representative on the Southland Hospital Board) ; “A. and P. Interests,” proposed by Mr A. (J. ; Leary and replied to by Mr Lee (presi- | dent of the Lake County A. and P. Society) ; “The Public Works Department,'proposed by Mr W. A. Scnifo and replied to by Mr S. S. Abnrn; “Mining Interests.” proposed by Dir James Ritchie and replied to by Dir George Reid: “Dir William Reed,” chairman for the past 25 years, proposed by Dir F. D. Thompson; and “The Press.”