The Daily News. SATURDAY, MAY. 4, 1912. THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 201, 4 May 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MAY. 4, 1912. THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

The Local Government Bllt promises to loom very largely in general politics during the next' few weeks, and the initial trouble that is facing local bodies is the selection of delegates for the conference which is to be held shortly in Wellington. The constitution of the conference is not very clear to the layman, but he is very forcibly seized of the fact that the Province of Taranaki is I only, under existing proposals, to have two delegates to represent the many important local bodies within its boundaries. If the other nine provinces have only a similar representation, it is difficult, even allowing for the Government' 6 representation, to see where Mr. Russell's sixty or seventy delegates are to come from, or how his estimate of a conference running into hundreds of representatives, should a wider basis be granted, is arrived at. The point, however, is immaterial. What we are immediately concerned with is our own meagre representation. An official memorandum attached to the Bill as circulated indicates that the measure is purely a tentative one in its present form, and the fact that the Minister of Internal Affairs has seen fit to anange for a conference of delegates from the various local authorities prior to the submission of the Bill to Parliament, indicates that the Government is prepared to accept such alterations in it as the expert advice of local administrators may suggest. But if the Bill is to be revised in' thi* direction it is advisable that the revision should be made by representative men, who are able to speak with authority upon the multifarious matters with which it deals. There are no two men in Taranaki who are able to speak with confidence upon subjects of such wide divergence* as those covered by the Bill, We could find excellent delegates to discuss one or other of them, but the men who could speak authoritatively upon harbor matters or upon education might very easily be quite at sea where the interests of hospital and charitable aid boards or the works of road boards are concerned. The suggestion thrown out by the New Plymouth Harbor Board seems an admirable one. In effect, the Board proposes that the Government should allow of the appointment of one delegate for each of the. classes of local bodies concerned in each province. This would mean at most only six or seven delegates for each province, and, with ten provinces in the Dominion, ' the personnel of the conference need not exceed more than a hundred. Such a basis of representation would be more effective and more useful, as well as more satisfactory to the country, than that at present proposed. The general purpose of the Bill is the consolidation of the work of local government and the lessening of its machinery, and a proper appreciation of this cannot be effected unless there is a thoroughly representative discussion of the measure by men who

have devoted their time and their energies to practical local administration. Parliament, we know, contains many such men, but there is such a difference in the community of interest between varying provinces that consideration of the BUI from a local standpoint is imperatively necessary before it is submittal to the House. A little extra expense now would be more than recouped if the Bill were sent forward shorn of many of its anachronisms and other disabilities, for the saving of time thus effected in Parliament would justify the extra expenditure. Two head 3 are proverbially wiser than one, and it naturally follows that four are wiser than two. If the representation is not increased in some form or other, Taranaki, at any rate, will suffer a serious injustice. There is still time to revise the basis of representation, and 1 we trust that the Minister for Internal Affairs will hearken kindly to the storm of appeal that is pouring'upon him in this direction from all quarters..