A DISTRICT REVIEW.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 235, 2 October 1914, Page 4

A DISTRICT REVIEW.

Local Government Affairs. ! Past and Present Methods. When presiding over the first meeting of the Waiuku Town board, prior j to the election of chairman, the returning officer, Mr W. J. King, said it might be appropriate to rcake a few remarks referring to the pre- | ' gress of the district during the last : half ce: tury. | Proceeding, he said that 50 years aso the township ct Waiuku con- I ' sistecf of lets than a sco:t of build | ! ingp. Two of these were ficttls Hl- | though one of therr. did rot long have ' a license), an undenominational j church, which tls'i served as the first I I school in the district, and two I j stores, one of which carried on the j ; post o!ti:e business. The only build- | ings in existence at the present ■ time out of the original ones he re- | ' ferred to were three. Two of them were hardly reccgnisablc now compared with their earlier period by ! reason cf alterations. The only one ! left of original design was the house occupied by Mr J. Bright. The trade and business of the time ihs spoke of was chiefly native. I - Waiuku was the route ol all trade | between Auckland and the Waikat\ the Great South road not then being even mentioned. Cutters ran between Waiuku and Onehunga, which ; sometimes took 24 hours and some- ( times 2J days. A bi-weekly mail was carried on horseback from Drury to Waiuku. The bridge j across the creek at the eastern side lof the township was not then built ar.d the road to Waiuku was round by the Quarry road. There were i no macadam roads in the district and no means ot communication except along the tracks leading to ar.d from the different native pahs. All around the district was dense bush, l and if a person wanted to get to | Mauku it was necessary to travel I well toward} Drury, then make a j deviation through a track in the ' bush Continuing, Mr King toucheil on the system of local government in vogue at that time, Provincial Councils. These were elected by the Hcuse and by property owner*. The commissioners had very extensive powers, having control of education, roads, bridges, rating, etc., and had very extensive borrowing powers. Among the measures then adopted for raising money for etfucaiiun purposes was by a bachelors' tax and a tax upon householders. lie was one of those who paid the bachelors' tax on several occasions. Now we had a | splendid svstem of free education. Later on, about 1867, the country people had more control of local Government afi'airs by an Act called The Highways' Act, giving power to levy their own rates. The proceedings were generally in open meeting, and if he recollected rightly those present at the meeting fixed the rate, which was upon an J acreage bqsis. He thought the | maximum ran was Is in the X. j | Soneiimes these meetings were very j amusing, sometimes they were inI teresting. The election of these I ! boriici was somewhat similar to ! I the present system of school com- j j mittee elections. A rate of 6d or ; j Is in the £ at that time was noth- j j ing, as there were only a few j settlers here and there. The boundaries of th 3 original Waiuku embraced Mauku, tut it was too unwieldly to work and Mauku broke away, about 186'J, and formed its own distri.t. Later on the Waiuku district was further divided into Waiuku and Waipipi ridings, with precucally the boundaries as they j existed to-day. At a later period, abi.ut 18s0, the J road boards came in and the system j of taxation wa3 alttred from the j acreage to the capital value. The j audit system was placed under Government control and other improvements also introduced. Since then county councils had superseded the road boards. Among the provisions ' of the county Acts was one allowing fifty householders or upwards to have ■ the privilege of forming town j [ boards, and later on when the popu- | lation reached lOOij the extended j powers of a borough may be availed j of. From his remarks the members i present would be able to compare i somewhat the past and present j methods of local government and see I the progress made. On tl.c whole they would note that there was an j obvious improvement in the method ; of administration. In closing, he t expressed a hope that the Board's ; career now commencing would be ; characterised by consistent admin- j istration and that the town would be i ccme a large, prosperous arid 1 populous centre, ultimately developing into a borough. l'he election of chairman was then proceeded with, particulars of which appeared in our last issue. ————————— :