The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 677, 27 January 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1881.

Mr Phakazyn made 'a statement at the last County meeting to the effect tliat the concensus of public opinion throughout the colony was favorable to ' a County system in which the Chair- | men of Eoad Boards would constitute the Council, i At first siefht such an arrangement would seem to be a natural and convenient one, but we should be surprised if the present professedly Liberal Ministry and the still more Liberal Opposition were willing to take away from country settlers the power they now enjoy of electing dir.ect representatives to the County Councils. To do so would be a reversal of all the fine sentiments which have emanated from the public men of the colony for years past, and would stamp them either as humbugs or as imbeciles, i New Zealand is unfortunate if every two or three years its political system has to be reversed or turned upside down. We have of late become so accustomed to rapid and unexpected changes, however, that we have almost become innured to them. Still, we fail to see the expediency of the continual shifts to which we are subjected, or to admire the statesmanship of a Paiiiament which passes a measure one year, and before it gets into working order repeals it. Our County system can, no doubt, be improved, but we ought rather to seek to modify the machine than to construct a new one. There are a large number of persons throughout the colony who have served three or four years' apprenticeship as County Councillors, and who, from their past experience, are likely to be extremely useful to the colony. To relegate all these gentlemen to private life, and to substitute for them a new set of in§n—the Chairmen of our local Highway Boards—would simply be an act of folly, On the one hand county settlers would be robbed of their franchise, on the other County Councillors would be robbed of that position and ■ power which they have fairly earned by a laborious and conscientious discharge of their public duties. It might be said that a man may.make-a very good Eoa'd Board Chairman, and yet be deficient as a County Councillor, It does not follow because a man can farm 100 acres successfully that he can farm 1000 acres with proportionate advantage, A Councillor must necessarily takea larger view, of public affairs than a Chairman of a Highway Board, and if County interest 1 ! are to be controlled by the representatives of such bodies it is tolerably evident that they ivill be dwarfed, We should be sorry to think that Mr Pharazyn's:view represents.

the publio;bpinion of the colony,lt is not absolutely necessary that either Counties shouldiibe; sacrificed'to Bond Boards; br'Eoad' Boards crushed out of existence by Counties. Mr Pharazyn's proposal, if not an exterminating: one, goes very far in that direction, ? We would - far rather see a gradual readjustment of tbe relations'existing between Counties and Road ' Boards than an organic change which would destroy the one and possibly not advantage the other. We would prefer to see Mr Pbarazyn, as Chairman of an important County, come forward as a County Champion and seek to make County government efficient and vespected—leaving Highway Boards to defend their own privileges and pei'ogatives. If County representatives look after County interests, ami | Road Board Wardens look after Eoacl

Board interests there will bo a bettor chance of the country being well served than if either one or the other is put into the melting pot.