COUNTIES AND SUBSIDIES.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 190, 3 February 1877, Page 2

COUNTIES AND SUBSIDIES.

[from the weekly news.] In law and fact, Counties which do not adopt the whole of the Counties Act denude themselves of extensive powers, first of rating, secondly of receiving funds, anti thirdly of expending moneys which- would otherwise be included in the County Fund; but which becomes the property of the Road Boards within the Counties which suspend the operation of the rating clauses of the Act. The Rond Boards will clearly bo large beneficiaries in such Counties as do not bring- the whole of the Act into Operation. In such Counties, all the moneys which would otherwise go to form the County Fund, finds its way to the exchequers of the Road Boards. It will be instructive to place before our readers the full t( xt of the clauses in the different Acts which hear directly on the subject of the sources of endowment, subsidy, fines, fees, &c., which go to make up the County Fund, and the subsidiary assistance which is afforded to Hoad Boards in addition to rates. Quoting first from the Counties Act, we take the following clauses from Part YIIL, which relates to the County Fund : 101. The County' Fund shall consist of flic moneys following, that is to say : 1. Rates made and levied as provided by this Act or any Act incorporated therewith. 2. Tolls levied on county roads, bridges, and ferries, and all rents of such tolls. 3. Moneys received by the Gomicii under any grant or appropriation by or under or in pursuance of any Act of the General Assembly of Row Zealand. 4. All moneys payable to the County under or in pursuance of the Financial Arrangements Act, 1876. 5. All rents and profits from property vested in the body corporate. 6. All fees, fines, and penalties recovered under the provisions of this Act, or any by-law made thereunder, or of the Acts incorporated therewith, for any offenceseommitteed within (lie County. 7. Moneys received by way of loan, as provided in this Act. 8. Moneys receive 1 by way of subscription or voluntary donation ; and 9. All oilier moneys which may become (he property of the body corporate of the County. 3112. All such moneys shall be carried to an account to be called "The County Fund Account.” Such fund shall be applied by the Council towards (he payment of all expenses incurred in carrying this Act into execution, and in doing ami performing all acts and tilings which the Council arc or shall be by this or any other Act empowered or required to do or perform. The primary disposal of tin’s County Fund, in the event of the County not adopting the whole Act, is thus arranged by Clause 10 G :

All moneys by this or any other Act payable to (ho County Fund of any County in which the “ whole of this Act is not in force,” shall be " paid into the Public Account to the credit” of a separate account for the County, instead of into the County Fund, and shall be disposed of as provided by the Financial Arrangements Act, 187(1. There is tints in these limited Counties? practically, and by law and fact, no County Fund properly so called ; but there is a separate account into which the money is deposited in name of the General Government, and whence it is applied according to the Financial Arrangements Act. On referring to that Act, we find that section 29 provides that the subsidies payable to Counties, Boroughs, Road Boards, and river districts, shall be calculated for the six months ending 30th June next, at onehalf of the subsidies annually payable as provided by section 8 of the same Act.. This is simply arranging for a halfyear’s subsidy, as the Counties will only have existed six months during the

present financial year. The most important danse in favour of the Komi Boards is that fouml in Clause SI. The only real work of the County Council which docs not adopt the whole of the Ad, will be not to levy any rate, not receive any money, nor lo spend any, hut to allocate and apportion among the various Koad Boards and outlying districts what has been paid into the public account of the Colony' for such Comity. Sub-section 2 of the immediately preceding clause, sets forth what is the duty of the County Council as respects the sums which accrue to the County account during the halt-year now current, and which cuds with odtli June. It is in the interest of the Koad ’Boards, which have in many places performed good work, to f; hang up ” the Counties Act, for by this means they obtain not only their own subsidies, computed according to their general rates, but also a share of nil the moneys whidi would have formed a County Fund, had the whole of the Act been in operation. Koad Boards in those Counties of suspended animation had better look to their own interests, and, in such cases, think twice Indore forming themselves into dubious Municipalities.