THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1872.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 198, 28 May 1872, Page 2

THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1872.

The brethren composing the Kauaeranga and Parawai Highway District Boards cannot, it appears, dwell together in unity. They have been squabbling for some time about the repairs to the main Parawai road, and, being unable to agree, now contemplate separation. It certainly appears to us that the Kauaeranga Board have spent a very fair proportion of their scanty funds upon the road to Parawai, indeed quite as much, if not more, than, could be expected of them. But, be this as it may, the Parawai Board has not felt satisfied, and has applied to his Honor the [superintendent to enforce the provisions of the Highway Boards Empowering Act in their favour, so that tl cy may get the subsidy, or a good portion of it, which is to come to the Kauaeranga Board, expended on the Parawai main road, in addition to about £BOO laid out upon it already by the former body.' ' His 'Honor won’t go to this extent, but tells the Parawai pco] le that if they are willing to extend their boundary to the Hape Creek, and make the road “ sufficient,” lie will do what is requisite to carry this into effect. The meeting last night, which was called for the purpose of considering his Honor’s letter, was adjourned until Thursday, without coining to any d-finite conclusion. But it comes to this: It is left with the Parawai Board t > say whether they are willing to extend their boundary to the liape Creek, j and to make the r- al ‘‘sufficient,” i n 1, if they are, we presume it will be done, as the Superintendent’s mode of going j to work is something in the Meae and Persian style, whose dictum altereth not. I h ref ore it appears to us whatever the residents between the liape and the present boundary think of .the matter, it will go for nothing. If the Parawai Board t accept His Honor’s proposition there will most likely be an end of the matter, so far as the extension of the Parawai District is concerned. But where |

this isuiit-l. su ; u butt comimtuily is to raisejthe.iu.ids to make and keen tl.e main road in impair we don’t know. Thi! KnaacrmigiTßoiird has spent within the pArtion of that district now proposed to be amalgamated witji Parawai, £134 within the past eighteen months, and the rates raised in the locality for the same period, amount to £f)l l4s. lud., which have not yet been p; id. It is quite certain that the present system of Highway Districts is utterly unsuited to the locality, and the sooner the Thames ( the township portion at any rate), sc-es this, and sets to work to establish a Munic.pality, the better for the whole community. If Parawai objects to join, let Parawai remain outside. The local Hoad Boards, if tin y did all pull together and live together in unity and brotheidy love, do not possess the powers or funds to meet the requirements of the place, and when they are divided against each other the case is still worse. Nothing in our opinion will be gained by the adjournment of last night’s meeting until Thursday. The Superintendent’s letter puts the case in a nut-shell, and he is not the style of man to go back from what he has once laid down as his dictum on any matter, for the sake of a meeting of unwilling ratepayers. Now suppose for the sake of argument the residents of Block 27 were to say : “ We don’t like the way in whicli the Kauaeranga Highway District Board arc treating us, in not making our roads and pathways ; let us write to the Superintendent, and go in for an alteration of boundaries, and have a highway district of our own.” Would not this splitting up of the district render the amount of rates collected in each next to useless? Yet it is by no means an impossible contingency that this might be done. The local powers here are already too much divided. We want one governing local body for the Thames townships, and until it is obtained its affairs will not be managed as they ought to be, and it must take measures to obtain a share of its own local revenue. It is not improbable that Provincial Governments in New Zealand will be abolished; at all events, there will be a strong fight for it, and it will be well for the Thames to see that in whatever change takes place, the district shall not contribute a large amount of taxation to the revenue, a penny of which it never sees again in any shape whatever. The plan has oeen tried long enough, and found to be a fadu.e. n there had been a littie more unanimity exhibited in tnis matter some time ago, and the people had made their voices heard, we should ere tins have been in a very , different position. As regards sanitary provisions, the p.ace is m a wretched state. Toe amount of stagnant water now i ..(.cumulated all over the flat, much of which is thickly populated, is enough to creed p.ay lie, pestilence, and famine to an extent worthy of any great and diriy city in the old country, and it is a miracle that the doatn rate is not larger than it is. its roads and streets are only passable at an amount of inconvenience and discomlurt, which is simply disgracetul. The local Boards have not got the means to remedy tins state ot tilings. The Provmeial Government cannot or will not do what it ought lor the Field, and tne General Government is nearly as bad. Next session the people of tne Thames must go in tor a bill for local selfgovernment in some shape, and must obtain the control of tne publicans’ auctioneers’, and other licences, together with a fair proportion of gold revenue raised here. With these increased means economically and judiciously handled the. Thames would soon rank amongst the finest and most prosperous of goldfield towns.