FIGURES WORTH STUDYING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 307, 24 June 1912, Page 4

FIGURES WORTH STUDYING.

rt will surprise a good many people to learn that the cost of management of our local bodies amounts, on the average, to nearly a third of the general rates (says the Dunodin- Star). The general rates are £1,117,389, and the cost of management £333,502. The greatest offenders are the boroughs with a population under 3000. Their cost of management in proportion to general rates averages 39 1-3 per cent. The cost of boroughs altogether averages 30 per cent. In counties the proportion is not so high. Their management absorbs 19y 3 per cent, of the general rate. Even that is a substantial portion of the rate revenue to bo swallowed up in official expenses. Some glaring illustrations of the waste that is going on- have been provided by the Minister of Internal Affairs. In one road district the rates raised amounted to £69, and the cost of management was £9B. In another the respective figurea the £163 and £*236—so that the management costs about twice the receipt of rates. In one land drainage district the general rates amount to £34, and the cost of management is £IOB. Is it surprising that administration of this nature should stand condemned ? The number of small boroughs in which the ratepayers contribute very largely to the official expenditure is very considerable. Last year, out of 57 town districts, only 13 had a revenue exceeding £ 1-000, and the total revenue of 21 of them was in each case less than £SOO. The proposal is to throw the smaller town districts into the counties, or else attach the road districts where contiguous to existing boroughs. The problem how best to deal with the small fry of our local government system, however, is a difficult one. Like the falling stars among me heavenly bodies, they seem destined to be either exploded or absorbed.