TOLL-GATE QUESTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 86, 2 April 1914, Page 3

TOLL-GATE QUESTION.

AN OPUNAKE VIEW. Tin- following article from the “Opmmko Times” will prove of interest at the present juncture:— At the Conference of representatives from County Councils, held in Bit hum lust week the delegates were unanimous on one thing, an impoitant point—that they do nothing. They were \there to discuss uniform charges at toll-gates and were decidedly of opinion that each did not have the same class of traffic and therefore knew best the price to put on the traffic. A reasonable contention. w uat appeared to me to be the most inconsistent form of consistency was to adopt that opinion and then fly off into believing' that one county can manage two counties better if they were squeezed into one. Well, uhj did they not make a start with uniformity of tolls on bordering counties. It seemed a .small matter, but the first little matter in amalgamation they failed to toncdi with a long pole. Surely, now, ye representatives, von should not talk big and fail at very small things when put to test. Then the question of too many counties was debated and the opinion of all the delegates seemed to be: That is so. Now, gentlemen, be honest! i\ hat county would you begin tc wipe out? The Egmont County would have been a good one to have pounced on at the meeting as, there were no delegates present from that county. Well, gentlemen, that is where the rub would rub you out, in naming the county or counties to go out, or under. If Mr Quin said Eltham, well the Elthamites would rub Quin out and Ids name would be mud at election time. If Mr Dan Hughes said Wftimate Hughes would be used up by the Waimateites at election time, and so on. Gentlemen, you cannot do it—rub a County out. County ratepavers like to control their own affairs. Even individual ratepayers would , like the power of spending their own, rates—and that would be a their own door. To go in for provincialism, would; in my opinion he disastrous as the basis of representation would be population, and where the population had the pull in voting power would also get the pull in spending power, the country districts would get the lean part of the money carcase. The very practice of tollgate-; exemplified ye gods of greatness in County affairs. The individual Counties' do not put up the toll-gates to catch their own ratepayers. Oh, no —to catch the neighbouring county ratepayers. Tf\ you want us to believe you are in earnest, get rid of your parochialism first by bidding the roads of the cursed toll-gates and pay a farthing more in rates to your owii County to keep your roads good and not tax outsiders for it.' Put your talk into practice, gentlemen, and then f fqr one will' believe you are honest in your talk and not trying to tickle the ears of the groundlings with straws of bunkum.