Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1938. LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 August 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1938. LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM.

f 'J'HOSE who have followed the history of this country

during the past twenty or thirty years may find an element of humour in the fears expressed by representatives of the Counties Association to a Select Committee of the House of Representatives yesterday. Whatever may be thought of the detail merits of the Local Government (Amalgamation Schemes) Bill, on which the committee in question is taking evidence, apprehensions of unduly hasty action in dealing with the reorganisation of local government need not, in light of extended experience, be entertained at all seriously. To look no further back, a local government reform Bill was an early item in the programme of the Massey Government when it took office some twenty-seven years ago, and the idea was then definitely entertained of transferring to local authorities much of the detail control over expenditure now exercised ostensibly by Parliament per medium of the Public .Works Estimates. Nothing came of that Bill, however, and little was accomplished in subsequent years to strengthen the organisation of local government, unless in the creation of the district highways councils associated with the Main Highways Board. Fears that legislation dealing with the reorganisation of local government will be hurried through this session presumably are groundless. In the present abbreviated, pre-election session, any possibility of an attempt being made to force through the. Local Government (Amalgamation Schemes) Bill must be classed as exceedingly remote. 6 In their evidence yesterday, the ‘'representatives of the Counties’ Association urged that no plan of amalgamation should be formulated until an impartial commission has made a complete investigation into the numerous anomalies existing in local government, into the implications of interwoven State activities, and has provided solutions to overcome them. Undoubtedly there are “numerous anomalies existing in local government,” in the Dominion, as well as interwoven, and overlapping, State activities that greatly need examination. It may be doubted, however, whether any general investigation would bring* to light much information that is not already visible, or readily accessible, to competent local government and other administrators. It has been urged repeatedly and with justice by the Mayor of Masterton (Mr T. Jordan}, who is also president of the Municipal Association of New Zealand, that the true foundation of local government reform is regional planning. Years ago, a beginning was made with the regional planning of districts throughout the Dominion and the constitution of regional committees, but the work unfortunately was not carried to a conclusion. All the information that is required for the orderly planning of regions is readily accessible and only needs to be brought out and assembled. It is by way of regional planning that an effective approach may be made to the problem of correcting what is anomalous and archaic in our existing system of local government. Incidentally, regional planning would throw into clear relief the unwisdom of the policy lately adopted ' of taking a proportion of the more important roads of the Dominion out of the hands of local bodies to be improved and maintained by the State. That policy obviously runs directly counter to an efficient reorganisation of local government and introduces a new element of overlapping and needless division of authority. What is desirable and should be sought is an opportunity of dealing with the total question of the reorganisation of local government on its merits. In any practical handling of the problem, account must be taken of wasteful overlapping by the State and Ideal bodies, as well as of an undue multiplicity of local bodies. It'should be recognised, too, that there is overlapping by rural and urban local bodies which might well be eliminated in the interests of all concerned. It would be foolish to expect the problem of local government reform to be handled by Parliament this year, but it should be handled as soon as possible, and with a determination to make local government a much more important and valuable part of the total structure of government in the Dominion than it is today.