The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1917. A LOCAL GOVERNMENT MUDDLE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 12 July 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1917. A LOCAL GOVERNMENT MUDDLE.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

The report of the lasf* meeting of the Wanganui County Council provides some rather alarming reading for settlers in the Upper Wangaehu Road District It .seems that when the Mangawhero Road District merged into the County it was nearly sixteen hundred pounds in debt. Jn coming to the point .at once we .may say that the County Solictor has advised that the Mangawhero debit balance should be a charge .over .tne whole County, and, consequently, the Upper Wangaehu Hoad Board will have to pay one-sixth of it, some .two •hundred and sixty pounds. Truly, it is • time the Upper W.angaehu" Road District withdrew from a position which thus becomes nothTng short of a scandal. Its .settlers already tax themselves to the extent of six .hundred pounds a year to pay salaries and upkeep of a County fr.om whlen they get no return, direct or indirect, and now they become 'liable for ;the debt of a delinquent xoad district in the same County. It is time Upper Wangaehu settlers began to .seriously think of this unholy entanglement with the Wanganui Comity, for they were plainly told at the last meeting of their Board that the .amount they woul have- to pay next year would !be considerably higher; they .already make a clean gift to the County every year of six hundred ponnds that should be used to make roads to the properties of those settlers who so badly need them, .or to keep in proper condition those arterial roads whlcfi is their due to "the whole community. Now, by the advice cf the County Solicitor, they become responsible for road districts that do not pay their way, besides having to face an in-: creased contribution to the County, money which they can never benefit by, even were It twice the sum. Wangaehu settlers have indeed been longsuffering, but while matters are becoming worse for th'e County, necessitating a large"r levy on their limited rates, the need's of the Road District are also becoming more extreme, and with their own requirements, hospital levy, increased contributions to the County, and with the addition of such exigencies as being responsible for the bad debts} of other localities they will very likely awake to find that the maximum rate will Have To be struck to enable them to pay their w/„y. This aspect may not have occurred to some ratepayers yet, but it is certainly troubling those who have the administration of the Board's affairs. However, if any spirit of abandon should preponderate in the Road District, the next best thing to ending the stupid alliance with such a "nest of difficulties, is to emulate the Mangawhero Road District, gel some two

thousand pounds in debt and then ] merge into the county, thus shifting | just debts on to the shoulders of every other settler within the County's jurisdiction. According to legal opinion they are liable for Mangawhero's debts, why should not Mangaw-hero settlers be asked to pay theirs? Of course, we do not argue in favour of any such unjust, improper and dishonest proposal. It is for the Upper Wangaehu settlers to extricate themselves from the increasingly dangerous and parlous condition they now find themselves, and the safest, most beneficial 'and surest way out of the difficulty is to set about forming a new County. It is only natural that all property-owners using the Upper Wangaehu roads should suffer througn the strangling of Road Board finances by the County nearly as much as ratepayers to the Board do. True, they are not rated to find the money, but tbey will suffer all the inconveniences of a failure to make and keep roads in a passable condition.- Why settlers close to Taihape have so long allowed themselves to be governed from Wanganui, Raetihi or Marton, is indeed perplexing; they have drifted on, and have allowed Wanganui people, Raetihi people, h and Marton people to manage their roads for them, and take their rates to be spent on that which is rather a detriment than a benefit to them. We know that some who have realised the pressing need which exists for a new County, together with those who have made lar\je local governing bodies a fad, will retort, that "all the money raised in any road district or riding of a County must be spent, in accordance with the law, where it is levied." But we think it is now shown what an utter fallacy that contention is. Older settled districts, such as the Wairarapa, Manawatu, and others, exploded this fallacy many years ago, and have we not shown irrefutably, that the Upper Wangaehu -Road district is compelled to pay to the Wanganui County six hundred pounds of their rates without receiving anything whatever in return, and although far away outlying districts of any County do not realise it they are wasting their hard-earheu money in a similar ratio. Those settlers almost on the Taihape Borough boundary may contend that although they do pay to the extent we indicate it would not be profitable to break away from the County with its headquarters fifty or ,one hundred miles distant. We co not suggest anything sp stupid; what w.e do say is that the Upper Wangaehu settlers who pay six hundred pounds lor nothing to the Wanganui County, besides being responsible for the debts of defaulting road districts, .should .combine with those settlers who have almost precisely similar relationship with the Waimarino County and the Rangitikei County, and make almost every penny now taken for the upkeep jof County administration in which they .have but little benefit, available for expendtiure on their own roads. Some in .the Waimarino and -Rangitikei Counties may say that .they only .pay only what is considered a .fair proportion .of general expenses .to their respective Counties, but is not the Upper Wangaehu case convincing evidence .that they cannot get value for their money. Besides, the whole of the .contributions for office, administrative, and miscellaneous expenditure might.be saved, and settlers .gain .direct and immediate control of their roads and expenditure, by using .the administrative machinery at present being paid .for by Upper Wangaehu .settlers. Say six hundred goes for .such .outlay from Upper Wangaehu, .five hundred or R like sum to Rangitikei, and a proportionate amount to lihe Waimarino County, almost every penny of it could be saved by the .settlers around Taihape linking up together and using thy; machinery and .offices now .kept .up .by the Upper Wangaehu Board in Taihape. T.h« advantages resulting .from the formation of ® County, taking in all the densely settled country within a fairly wice ! radius of Taihape, are very real and very considerable, to say notiiing about the advantages arising from such settlers rating themselves and conducting their own "business in their own way without the irritating interference of those living perhaps a hunhundred miles distant, and whose interests will naturally conflict. In conclusion, it is axiomatic that rates should be spent by the ratepayers in the centre to which all the traffic from the area rated drifts. Then, we would ask does the Upper Wangaehu District traffic converge on Wanganui? Does the large volume of traffic from the borough borders, Taoroa, and the immense area within twentj' or so miles radius of Taihape drift to Marton? Does the traffic from that land near Taihape which is in the Waimarino County drift northwaffls to Raetihi? Of course not, the traffic from the territory we mention, anc from a much wMer area, all, every ton and wheel of it, finds its way to Taihape; this is an undeniable fact, and we are quite frank apd earnest,

writing from experience gained in other districts when we state that it is high time our settlers awoke from the hypnotic influence of other governing bodies and set about housekeeping for themselves. We have shown that as lodgers they are being exploited;, perhaps legally, but that makes no difference, they are sending their good money away and getting no returns.