ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Southland Times, Issue 864, 13 December 1867, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

— ♦ - WB DO NOT IDENTIFY/ OTTBSEIiVES IN ANT WAT WITH THB OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY OTT* COBBE3PONDENTS.

(to thb editor op thb southland times.) Sib. — I notice that you have recently taken into consideration the question of a change in the form of Government for the Provinces ; as the question is of some importance, and likely to be brought under the consideration of the Provincial Council at its next sitting, I shall feel obliged by your inserting my theory of local self-government. - In advocating the abolition of provincial institutions, I by no means propose the substitution of Shire Councils, Road Boards, or Municipalities These have had a fair trial, on the most liberal scale, in Victoria, and the experiment has not proved a success. On the contrary, judging from the tone of its most respectable paper, the Argus, it would appear that the establishment of such institutions has proved anything but an unmixed blessing. To quote from the leading article in its issue of 25th October last : — " Accordingly, we find some of the road districts and shires expending the whole of the rates they raise in salaries and office expenses, and now and then encroaching on the endowment fund received from the State ; so that in these instances it would be actually more economical for the Government to carry out the works in the respective districts, than to delegate that task to the local bodies, while the rate-payers would be spared a burden which is now entailed upon them, for no other purpose than to entitle them to claim a certain subsidy from the Treasury, and to provide easy situations and snug salaries for a few favored office-holders. In many cases the salaries and management charges amount to twenty-five per cent of the revenue derived from all sources, as will be seen from the following figures, given in an official return : — I ml t O

Thus in a much larger, a longer established, and wealthier community than our own, it would appear that that leisure class, from which alone can be obtained men of sufficient education and independence to properly administer the powers of Government, has not yet been created ; can we then hope for a more enlightened, disinterested, and able administration of public affairs? I am not inclined so to think. The form of Q-overnment I would submit for the consideration of the public, is, I think/ simpler, and likely to prove less expensive and more effective. The provincial system disposed- of, the provinces could be declared into counties, subdivided into road districts, according to circum- j stances, and the natural features of the country. The revenue derived from land sales, or rather the balance left after deductions made by the G-eneral Government for the payment of interest and sinking fund, and of those departments which will fall under the control of the General Government, could b© paid into a consolidated provincial fund, out of which each road district could bo subsidized commensurately with the amount raised by local taxation. In the place of the Provincial Council I would substitute a County Road Trust Board, or whatever it may be called, to be elected by the whole county as the Superintendents are in the larger Provinces ; the chairman of which Board, who would take the place of a Superintendent, to be determined by the largest number of votes; one fourth of the members composing the Board retiring annually ; the order of retirement being determined by the number of votes ; any retiring memb it to be eligible for re-election. The chairman to retire when the last of the original Bbard have resigned, but like his colleagues he may be re-elected. This of course is the mere skeleton of the plan, the details of which could be provided in an Act. Such a provision for local selfgovernment would combine the advantages of representationof, andresponsibility to the people, supposed at present to be possessed by the Provincial system, with a more economical though perhaps less grandiloquent administration, as I shall on a future occasion show ; while it would be superior as regards effectiveness and infinitely less expensive and cumbersome than the Shire Councils, Eoad Boards, and Municipalities. There might be another plan ; substituted for the Provincial system. The Provinces declared into counties and subdivided into Eoad Districts, the whole affairs of the county might be administered by an officer appointed by and responsible to the' Governor. Under the first plan we would have a seeming responsibility with % chance of despotism." Under the second

we would possess a seeming despotism with a real responsibility. In the present century amongst a British community, probably- the- first will prove more palatable. — I have &c, Obseevee

Shires and | « § j|S fe| Koad Di«tricts. - -g g> g^ i n Si j 1 Bet Bet 685 713 1626 2728 Dandenong 212 193 1281 979 Eltham 355 341 1256 1671 North Harrow 506 363 483 1217 Eutherglen 511 424 1«16 1572 Winohelsea 1180 507 5145 1082