THE THAMES ADVERTISER ON OHINEMURI INDEBTEDNESS

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 182, 11 December 1886, Page 3

THE THAMES ADVERTISER ON OHINEMURI INDEBTEDNESS

The following aiticle appeared in the Thames Advertiser of Saturday last :—: — Ohiuemuri, as a county, is iwy beginiug to rcelise the situation. It is a most uneviable one, and one which ought to operate as a warning to small but enterprising communities, liable to be afflicted with the notion that they are able to manage their own affairs, independant of surrounding circumstances, After a brief term of office,homo rule, or local self-government,if the phase be prefened, Ohinemu.i finds itself in a position pitiable in the extreme. With an annual income barely sufficient to derfay official expenditure, it finds itself Saddled

\uth liabilities amounting in loiuul numbers, to cEJOOO. The largest proportion of lliat debt is duo <o thepaicnt county, fiom which this youthful spendlluilt or prodigal, after being* duly cautioned, persisted in separating" itself. Tl\e debt in question was constituted by an arbitration award, which only requiics some, tiiiling form of law, to give it all the force and effect of a judgment of the (Supreme Couit. IS T ay, moie. Under ceilain conditions a judgment of the court can be appealed against, and, even although it may not bo rmcrsed, may be made to operate as that lefuge for the destitute — hanging it up for the. tituebeing. No such lecourse, however, awaits an arbitration award. If insisted upon, the- execution of the law cannot possibly bo stayed. Here, then, is a dilemma for a local self-governing body to be placed in. County property of every description, including rates and effects, liable to be destrained upon, and the whole district leit destitute, for an indefinite period, of a single sixpence to cmry on neces?ary works ; not even enough to remunerate, the services of that ingenious gentleman who, by dint of grouping a variety of incongruous Ooices tog-ether, succeeded in iindiiig himself an income at the rale of JHoO per annum. Having brought things to such a pass, most pei sons would imagine its promoters would be disposed to " hide their diminished heads," and leave the county, like its prototype in the parable, " to arise and go to its father," in other words to enact the " prodigal's return." These gentlemen, however, are troubled with no such scruples. Having already succeeded so well in demoralising the place they are, | so we learn from the report in another i column, going to have another <• try to see what can bo further achieved. Their latest device savours a good deal of the j problem, '* robbing Peter to pay Pmil. 1 ' j They purpose invoking the aid of the j money lender under guise of the (> Loans i to Local Bodies Act.*' That is, to pay existing liabilities incurred by their own want of foresight and folly, they are goI ing to saddle the county with additional debt to tiie ratepayers with increased taxation. Presuming, for argument's sake, the proposal was tenable, which ! happily it is not, the latepayers of Ohi- | nemuri must be indeed a lonu-buffeiino; community if they tameh submit to such additional taxation, for ho other puipose , than to gratify the whims of a lew gentlemen desirous of earning on the faice ot local self government, for what cm only be a term longer. Suppose its deb's weie to be liquidated in that way, in what position would the county be ? Its exchequer would be empty, its effects under embargo, and iU sources of income impounded. The situation as it now Stands is bad enough, but under that condition of things it would be much woise. Most certainly it; would not ha\e a farthing left to defray the expenses of loads, tracks, biidges, and other woiks such a-* the county ratepayer expects in lieu of the coin he pays in the shape of taxation. Happily, however, the " Load to Local Bodies Act" does not permit of the money raised under its pro\Uions being appropriated in the way projected. Under these chcum>tances the ingenuities of the council will have to be taxed in some other direction for the relief of the county.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1886.