ON BOARDS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 701, 29 November 1933, Page 4

ON BOARDS

The New Zealand taxpayer, contemplating the plethora of boards which are aiding and abetting in the management of this country, may be excused for wondering whether this Dominion is governed by boards or by the elected representatives of the people. A correspondent recently took us to task for f ailing to appreciate the urgency for the constitution of a Poultry Registration Board but this is only among the additional crop of boards which is in prospect. Already we have the Railways Board, the Transport Board, the Unemployment Board, the Small Farms Board, the Broadcasting Board, the Dairy Control Board, the Meat Producers' Board, to mention only a few of those more prominent in the public eye. Unfortunately it is impossible to secure a complete record of New Zealand's boards, because so far no Boards Registration Board has been set up. The matter might possibly be left to the enterprise of the Minister of Agriculture. We do not question for a moment the f act that many of these boards are doing useful work. Indeed, in some cases, they have almost wholly taken over the functions and powers of the Government Departments with which they are connected. As instances, the Railways Board is vested with almost dictatorial powers in the management of i the railways, although the pale ghost of a Railway Department still exjsts. The Unemployment Board has practically absorbed the Labour Department, the Small Farms Board has taken over some of the most important functions of the Land Department. The question arises then as to the necessity for continuing to maintain the name and style of certain Government Departments, or alternatively of certain boards. But this raises a further question as to the extent to which democratic government is being filched from the hands of the people by the policy of appointing boards to

act m a variety of capacities as deputies for the Government. The general taxpayer has no voice in the appointment of these boards "nor has he any real redress against their activities. He has still the right to make representations to a Government department, but Government departments can now, with every justification, plead that they have no hand in the matter and refer the suppliant to the board concerned. Persons with experience of the results obtained from representations in these directions will appreciate how much further forward the case will be advanced. In very many cases, these boards are the actual executive bodies with the attenuated remnants of their departments standing as a buffer between them and the public. If the country is to be governed by boards and by order-in-eouneil, it would be better and considerably cheaper to appo.int an expert board of management to control the country and do away with the superflous trappings of representative governr ment. The idea is not new and it has a great deal to eommend it. On the other hand the increasing tendency for Parliament to delegate its powers to supernumerary boards, is one of the most noticeable and at the same time one of the most disquieting features of present day political development. Under this condition of affairs thefe is no doubt that the rights of selfgovernment are slipping more and more out of the hands of the representatives of the people ijito ihe hands of those who do not represent the people.