LOCAL BODY RECIPROCITY.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 October 1919, Page 4

LOCAL BODY RECIPROCITY.

The carrying of the Ruxmui R_iding metafling loam «pol‘l wil‘l force -intiot the forefront the question of establishing a county depot-, either in Taihape or, perhaps, at Mataroa, at the earliest practical moment. The £35,000 -t'o be spent in Ruanui, together with loans previously carried). find TIWIOII larger loans virtually certain to be carried in the very near future, means t}iat within the fiéxt year or two some £150,000 are likely to be spent around Taihape in making passable roads right

into the hinterland.‘ .Wo, desire to im-

press -upon Taihape businessmell that an occasion is arising in which this town may make a very serious false Step It is within the power of townspeople to determine from whence ‘the huge I.oa’d.Wol-ks shall be conducted; from whence the railway shall be t.-3P‘ ped for men and material to do 13110 work, whether Taihape or somewhere else; from whence the army o's I'o3-d‘ makers, teamsters, and traction drivers shall receive ‘their’ Wages o"el‘Y Week or fortnight. It is for TaihaPo people to say whether all these thifig-S Sham be done from this town, or whether they shall-. ,go to give some “the? locality a boost to the town’s 10553 It is for them to say whether the first County Oflices and requisite» buildings shall be in Talhape, or whether they shall be where they would be 110 1055 convenient for perfect-supervisi-011 Of operations than they would be in this town. The County COIIIICiI has approached the Borough for a section of land on which to erect oificcs and other buildings, and while there should be the utmost care taken in dealing with this appeal for a section, hedging it about with conditions as to building to be erected, and ensuring that no-th-ing unsightly in any way shall mar what little beauty thetown can boast of now, or in the near future, we are of opinion the town would not be considering its own"“interest.s in turning the. application down without cause which is not now apparent. The section in question is one, we understand, which came into public possession, not for the Bbrough alone, but for the district. It was an accident of boundarymaking that brought it into the Borough; we mean that it is not one of those‘ reserves set ‘apart for relieving rates, or for assisting education. And, on the other hand, it is ‘not_a private individual that is wanting the section, it is the local body that represents the farmers and settlers outside "the arbitrarily fixed Borough boundaries,~e'that is, the adniinistrative body of the settlers by whose operations and’ needs the growth of the town’s business is made possible. There is no variation so far as Borough and County depend largely "upon a practice of reciprocity here more". than anywhere else.’ :Whe'n t‘lle"B.or’ough stood‘ in need‘ of "me"ta_l from pitsithatftlic County paid several hundreds of ponnds,,‘for}‘ it was freely given, ‘nothing 'cll‘ar_ged4,for’ it-;‘ when application was ‘made for use of a. metal pit at the otherend of the‘town, the County ‘made no bones about it but Virtually said, go in and take what you want. In ess‘enc'e, interest in a gravel pit should not be determined between town settlers and country settlers by an arbitrarily fixed boundary; and a similar spirit should meet the representative body of ‘farluers: and settlers out. side the town boundary, whenever anything is desircd which is obviously to the benefit of both.‘ The men outside our Borough botlndary will‘ very soon tire of a policy of "giving that is not in some way reciprocated. h[al~:ev:-what-ever conditions are -considered advisable with regard to quality and size of buildings to be ereetetl, for if the County does not require a large building now, they could let a portion as shops or offices. and it should be understood that if a separate County did come into existence in North Rangitikei, the section and builidngs should go free and untraminclled To the new County; it should be in no way a set off to anything in the South when adjusting accounts. We trust this Borough will not make the fundamental blunder of doing anything unreasonable in preventing Taihape from becoming the centre from which hundreds of thousands of pounds are to be spent by settlers and farmers hereabaout. through their administrative body——the County Council’.