LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Putaruru Press, Volume II, Issue 55, 6 November 1924, Page 2

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

PRE-EMINENT in national importance, and of especial interest to all ratepayers and members of local on of the Public iMßjfopiag'dealing with local' transport, loan schemes With the candour and courage characteristic of all his weighty pronouncements, the Minister lays bare several glaring and longrecognised weaknesses in local government.— For example, none will deny the reasonableness of the dictum that, “ after allowing for main trunk transport ways, both railway and road, all other transport ways should be complementary to one another, and all leading to the most economical and efficient (transport) instead of, as is too often the case, competing with one another.” It is unfortunate that even the “ allowance ” the Hon.

, Coates refers to has to be made, but h\ the legacies of the past, and the topoLT graphv of the country have left us ¥ ' with trunk railways and main high- ' ways running parallel and conti guK ous to one another, and we must accept that position as we find it. There is, however, no excuse for perpetuating the economic waste in regard to branch lines, for the experience of all the older countries goes to show : that long-distance freight and passenger services are economically suited to the railway service, transport up to 50 miles or thereabouts can be . - more expeditiously and more cheaply handled by motor vehicles. It is very obvious that' the community must be overburdened with rates and taxes if the people have to pay for both railways and roads run- •— ning ~bv almost identical routes. The recognition that the true function of roads, jn- relation to the railway system, is to act as feeders to the railways will result in the elimination of much of the present wasteful duplication of transport ways. Saddling the ratepayers with the cost of rnaintenance of motor-traffic roads running alongside railways is a costly business. The Statement goes on: “ While there exist so many authorities vested with borrowing and expending powers it is practically impossible to control the position or co-ordinate the result of such expenditure.” Just so. But there is room for a considerable difference of opinion as to whether or not the amalgamation of local bodies - . really results in benefit to the ratepayers. Those who are familiar with

county work, for instance, know very well that the settlers in the outlying portions - of a large and unweildly county usually get attention in inverse ratio to their distance from “ the seat of government.” And in regard to centres of population in

counties, long and varied experience over the Dominion has shown that in the interests of both the centre and the counties, the power should be governed by town boards or borough councils. The governing of a populous, developing centre bv a county

council has too often proven an annoyance to the centre people and a worry to the council. There are exto every iule,. and the exto the principle just enunis that of harbour boards. We are quite in accord with the Minister

when he states tl Even some of the specially constituted harbour boards could have carried on satisfactorily under the administration of an existing' local authority ’ Taking out the negative, or fifth and sixth words in the following excerpt from the Statement, we are in entire agreement: “ Possibly the time has not yet arrived for the organisation of a local government board, but it does seem to me that we should take into early consideration the creation of a plan whereby no local authority may proceed with the raising of a loan until the proposal has been first submitted to experts for investigation, in order to ascertain whether (a) the work proposed is sound from an engineering point of view: (b) it is justified at the cost estimated, having regard to existing services; (c) it is economically sound, having regard to its value to the district concerned and the capacity of the district to pay for it; and (d) (if applicable) it fits in and forms part of a comprehensive plan of relative works. Assuming all these factors to be answered by the expert investigators in the affirmative, and the raising of the loan concurred in by the Treasury, who would maintain a record of all public loan indebtedness, actual and prospective, the way would then be clear for the local body to submit the issue to the ratepayers, who would have an assurance which they do not have now.” That passage is fundamentally sound, and in operation it would have saved this country from the waste of, not thousands merely, but millions of pounds, especially in regard to puerile, overlapping harbour schemes. Provided that all projects were subjected to the scrutiny of engineering and financial experts, the ratepayers’ vote would not then be “ a poor and unsatisfactory system of control.” We join issue at once with the Minister when he deprecates the carrying of a loan proposal on the present respective majorities required in counties, boroughs and town districts. If the poll is not commensurate with the total number of ratepayers in the area, that is entirely the fault of the ratepayers themselves. In counties a majority of three-fifths of the total votes polled is required to carry the proposal, arul this is a substantial portion. In town .districts ‘and boroughs a bare majority only is needed, and this is fair enough in view of the fact that all ‘gbsident ratepayers can easily enough get to the pollingbooth, while the absentees—who may not be a desirable quantity—can have the names of resident representatives placed on the ratepayers’ rolls. The fact that often a majority of the ratepayers do not vote at all is due to an indolent weakness of human nature that the Minister himself probably finds is one of his greatest enemies—sheer apathy! The ratepayers who do not vote quite rightly give over to the more energetic or interested parties their rights of decision. We have no sympathy whatever with the wilful non-voter who takes no interest in the welfare of his distinct; if he is mulcted in expenses he did not reckon upon, it should prove a salutary corrective to his reprehensible lethargy. For all its candour and courage, the Statement bears the impress of commendable diffidence and modesty, appropriate to the propounding of remedies for such intricate and manifold difficulties; but we fancy that its reception by leaders of local body affairs will be such as to embolden the Minister to take a more definite and decisive attitude on a future occasion.