The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. Motto: Public servicer TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1920. INCUBUS OF ROAD BOARDS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 544, 29 June 1920, Page 3

The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. Motto: Public servicer TUESDAY, JUNE INCUBUS OF ROAD BOARDS.

By the report of the iast monthly meeting of the Manukau County Council, which duly appeared in the "Times," it will have been noted by those interested in local bodies' administration and the policy governing their existence that the council is desirous of having the remaining road boards in the area under its control merged into the county. This object has our hearty approuil and support. Intelligent men having a knowledge of local body matters have long since come to the conclu-J sion that the existence of road boatodf

in a county, constituting' petty littjfc spheres of control dotted here afid there like native reserves, are a grjtat hindrance to the progress of the county as a whole, and therefore every legitimate weapon should be brought into action with the object oi smashing organisations which, though once of great value, have outlived their period of real ".sefulness. In taking this stand on the question under discussion we are fully aware of the fact that we will incur the displeasure of members of existing road boards —though the enlightened section of the ratepayers In road board areas will be on our side. But when the underlying reason of such hostility is analysed our attitude is strengthened. When human motives are calmly and logically dissected we find that In private life it is the hope of reward that sweetens labour, and in public life, it is, in addition to genuine motives of public welfare, the desire ior a place in the public eye, and the approbation of public opinion, and the prestige and standing thereby attained by public men in the community that are the inducements for vtiie&t going the sacrifice an<\ labour entailed. These " craves are quite natural, and on the results in action are the commonwealth, and respond sible for the building up of the multifarious institutions of a public nature which abound in all civilized communities. But with public Institutions, just as with machinery and means of locomotion, ther% cosn'es a time when certain instruments : V/hich have been of vital service in thii past must give place to newer and hnors efficient appliances. Thus barrow and the shovel, a,nd evfn the horse-dray, *j»Wkh in the present instance may be taken as apt sfmbols of the road boar<k with its nile of thumb methods, must givejflace to the roa4 grader, and steam guided hv the hit'hest enginecnnf* ! iilsjjl Obtainable, which, likewise, may to represent the county council in action. Now, it must by this time be perfectly obvious to membeis of most road boards that they a-e a hindrance to progress, and in their hearts they know that it is the desire to be in the limelight and to secure prominence in the public eye that induces them to retain their worse than useless because positively harmful—postions. Such being

the case, it is incumbent on the unfortunate ratepayers concerned to abolish every such incubus in their midst.

We have lately beer, securing information from various sources in respect to the constitution and Insto.y of tho Manukau County, which we traverse hereunder in order to give a coherent outline of the very important subject we are dealing with.

The council way constituted in May, 1012, principally for the purpose of taking over control of the main roads in the county, and collecting the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board's annual levy. In order to cope with the large amount of work entailed in looking after the main roads, it was found necessary to purchase plant costing approximately CI6OO, and to keep a permanent staff of outside employees. At that time dual control was in existence throughcut the county, the following road boards levying aud fiollefiting rates in

addition to the council:—Mangere, i Pakuranga, Paparoa, Howick Town-1 ship, Papakura, Manurewa, Papatoe-1 toe, East Tamaki, Turanga, Marae- , tai and Wairoa. It was not long before some of the road boards realised that dual control was not of advantage to their district, owing to the double administration expenses, and the •difficulty of properly maintaining boundary roads. The Maraetai Rood Board' was the first to merge on February 1, 1914. Others followed in the following order:—May 31, 1917, Turanga Road District; August 7, 1917, Manurewa Road District; May 31, 1918, Wairoa Road Board; November 21, 1918, Papakura Road Board; June 30, 1919, Papatoetoe Road Board, August 30, 191!), Mangere Road Board.

The road boards at present in existence are as follows:- East Tamaki Road Pioard, Pakuranga Road Board, Paparoa Road Board, and Howick Township Road Board, their rateable values for las: year being respectively as follows: £317,830, £170,315, £43,975 and £74,335. From this it will be seen that three of them are very small districts, while East Tamaki, a fairly large district, is a portion of a riding of which the other part is already merged. Where there was sufficient population within the prescribed area, and the ratepayers favoured strictly local control, town boards were constituted at Manurewa and Papatoetoe, and row have sole control of the area within their boundaries. Other districts will no doubt favour this course, but, until local conditions are such that a town district or borough can be constituted, nothing can be done.

As a result of the merging, the council's position has been greatly strengthened, and, in order to cope with the greater responsibilities, has made arrangements to purchase new roadmaking plant to a value of £9OOO. This, added to the plant originally purchased, should make one of the most up-to-date road .constructing plants in the Dominion, and is expected to maintain a high standard of road at a cheaper cost to the ratepayers, than any road board could hope to do under present methods.

The following position now presents itself. While etfery ratepayer in each district has taken his share of paying for the cost of this plant, he is* debarred from any benefit from it, otbe* sm on tWs main road, as the council cannot now undertake'to do outside work for othej local bodies.

We may point out that the Government subsidy on rates collected has now reached a critical stage. When the road boards wire collecting their rates county the Government paif equal to 5s in £1 on thejamftnts collected, half to the roa%hfllrd and half to the council. ThW has gradually been reduced as the boards merged, untTkthe estimated loss tip the council folSgthe coming year to nearly lifiOO. As soon al the boards at .mm merge, the county will%e entitled to the maximum * subsidj\of 82500. It will, therefore, be safari What a great loss the county is sateering through the failure- of all the\road boards to merge, and it is irtKthe interests of the county ratepayers generally that the/position is placed before our rewlers. Jit is hard to understand the attitude adopted by the in favour of road control when one Hooks at their Ij*tjt-of-date methods of maintenance to expend necessary amounts "of money on roads. that, but practically every ratepayer in, the county pMts for the services of »n engineer, ancfeet when dual control-is in force that «Mjineer is prevented from giving side come under the control of board. This same argument applies to roadmaking plant. To leave the general'and come to the particular, we raa| give an instance of the utter inadequacy of the road board system to cope with the roading problem ih anything like an effective manner. . The PapakuraEast Tamaki boundary road is in a disgraceful state, arid the Manukau County engineer (Mr. W. J. Lopdell) suggested thorough* improvements. The road which is about two miles long, would cost £SOO to put into permanent good order, but the East Tamaki Road Board replies with answer that the members haw inspected the road and consider that an .expenditure of £lO would & sufficient. With the chronic financial weakness of road boards, the East Tamaki Road Board were not abTsM:o pay' for a decent job, hence the ludicrous and stupid reply. This is £ fair sample of the inefficiency, financial paralysis, and doddering state of road hoards all over the Dominion.

•[From the.foregoir.g it will be con- . by all logical minds that road boards, wi£h the inevitable duality of control, tfhich is a bad feature in any sphere, have outlived their period o l ' usefulness, and should be abolished in the interests of the ratepayNot only is the work done un <h%. road boards' auspices not nearly so comprehensive or efficient as that undertaken by counties, but for thi& much' poorer return the ratepayers in abroad board district have to pay higher rates, proportionately speaking, than ratepayers whose lands are in the one local body's territory. Seldom, if ever, do road boards own any plant worthy of the name, and consequently the little work they do undertake must be done by the slowest and most costly methods, !tnd in the most inefficient way unless they are able to secure the services of a county engineer, or one of equal status, and also to hire county plant. Furthermore, it has been shown that the existence of road boards damages a county as a whole financially in respect to the amount of Government subsidy obtainable. For this latter and other reasons thd Manukau County Council would be quite justified in imposing the" maximum rate of l':d, general rate, plus any special i rates required, on each road board ! district; in this it would be following the policy adopted by the FrankI lin County Council some years ago, I wheieby stupidly obstinate relics of roadboardism were roped in. Th a . existence of superfluous local bodies means more unnecessary work for Government departments, and ' more applicants for doles from the Public Works Department. On these groAds, as well as for'the good of the Dominion, wc should think that the Government would be mighty glad to give county councils power to abolish road boards, as long as the ratepayers in such areas were fairly treated. Road boards must go, and they are now lingering on life's stage long after they have played their parts, evidently loath to sink into the inevitable oblivion that awaits them. In their own interests the ratepayers should rise up and demand that the council shall take the sole control, and so end the wasteful nud inefficient dual control, (