The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GIDBORNE, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1884. NEW COUNTY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 45, 21 January 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GIDBORNE, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1884. NEW COUNTY.

The information we gave a few days ago respecting the desire of the inhabitants in the northern part of this County to institute a Council of their own is, although the movement must be considered somewhat premature, worthy of attention, showing as it does the feeling that exists in the Waiapu and Tologa Bay Ridings with regard to the treatment the ratepayers in those localities have received from the Cook County Council. The Waiapu Riding, extending from tho summit of Arowhana to Marau Point, is eight miles north of Tologa Bay, and comprises 397,430 acres, there being in that district nineteen European County electors, holding land of the rateable value of £109,000, who will contribute this year the sum of £926 on account of rates. Tologa Bay has forty-three electors, who paid, last year, the sum of £373 155., of which £296 18s. was for direct taxation) while the total sum expended on the ridings by the Cook County Council for works —such as roads, &c —was £169 17s. 6d. This year, owing to Government paying taxes ou Crown and Native lands, the total of the rates in the ridings will amount to £1,300. The question then arises, have the settlers iu the northern part of the Cook County been treated fairly by the Council that has received a large amount in rates from them ? It should, certainly, be the aim of a public body like a County Council to foster as much as is in its power the outlying districts over which it has jurisdiction, so as to encourage the settlement of the country ; and w£ must say that, judging by the

quoted above, the districts of Wfuapli and Tologa Bay have not received that attention from the Council they mert With some County Councils the rile has been to expend their income Bn proportion to the revenue derived frim the various ridings, and the adopitn of this plan is consistent to a certain extent; but, where there is a fobability of a County at large being benefitted by the formation of roadain a particular locality, it would be wise on the part of a public body to expend the necessary funds in that direction. Assuredly, the settlers in the northern part of the country have a right to expect that the greater portion of the rates collected from them should be expended in making roads, &c., iu their district, and yet we find that, out out of £373 15s. paid as rates last year in Tologa Bay, only the sum of £169 18s. 6d, was expended in that locality. This unsatisfactory state of affairs cannot possibly have the effect of impressing the settlers in the northern part of the Cook County with the “ beneficial results” from the transaction of the Council’s business, and we are not at all surprised that the ratepayers of Waiapu and Tologa Bay are dissatisfied with the manner in which public money has been expended on the East Coast. But, apart from the injustice of not expending an approximateamountof the money in the district in which it is raised, in

providing the means of communicatian between that locality and the main 1 centre, there is the consideration, as we 1 previously remarked, that it istheduty, and should be the desire, of a body having control of public affairs to ' foster, as much as possible, the advancement of outlying districts, which may justly be deemed feeders to the main centre. Of course, the settlers in thickly-populated districts have a right to expect that their requirements in the matter of roads should be attended to; but it would be unjust for them tc> desire that their Council should not pay a fair attention to the highways in distant localities. The Cook County is, certainly, a very extensive one, having an area of 1,800,000 acres, while the total rateable value of property within its limits is £1,623,000, and the number of ratepayers only 438. It will thus be seen that this large area of land has but a small proportion of settlers, and it should be the aim of the County Council to open up the country as speedily as possible, to induce settlement, and thereby give an impetus to the increase of trade in the main centre of this highly-favored part of the Colony; We much regret that the settlers in the Waiapu and Tologa Bay ridings should have cause to desire a separation from this part of the County, as “ unity is strength,” and it should be in the power of the present Council to manage public affairs more satisfactorily than they could possibly be carried on under the divided control of two such bodies. With respect to the power given to secede and form a new County, sec. 14 of “ The Counties Act, 1867,” sets forth that not less than 200,000 acres shall be the area of a county, with no fewer than 100 county electors con. nected therewith,; so that the settlers of Waiapu and Tologa Bay Ridings are not at present sufficiently nume-rous—-taken from a rateable point of view—to move successfully in the matter of forming a new County. The institution of a second County Council would, of course, entail much extra expense iu the performance of official duties; nevertheless, the settlers of the northern part of the County have a perfect right to seek to obtain what is due to their district, and, if justice be not meted out to them, no objection can be raised to the adoption of steps for the control of their own public affairs. Let us hope, however, that the trouble will be readily swept 1 away —that the Cook County Council will see the wisdom and justice of 1 paying attention to the requirements of the northern portion of the county 1 under its jurisdiction, and thus leave ' no cause for the carrying out of the ' movement for separation, which, if 1 effected, would prove injurious to the ' interests of all concerned.