MASTERTON DEBATING SOCIETY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1400, 9 June 1883, Page 2

MASTERTON DEBATING SOCIETY.

COUMTY GOVERNMENT. '■ J. The usual mseting of the above Society was held last evening at tho Institute, what) tlie' above question was the subject of debate; ,Mr S. H. Wickerson occupied' - the chair.'| Great interest was excited among bur leading County politicians,... • and the question was well discussed on ' both Bides. Among those present were , . Messrs .G, Beetham, M.H.R, Burton ', Boys, D.' MoGre«or, and W, W. McCardle. Mr Hogg opened the dobate in ''favor .. of suspending County Government. The opener commenced by giving a history of i - the introduction of County Government, which he argued was made by the .Government to.take the place ah Provincialism, He contended that the system had been well tried and fed, and he could not ■ complain of the way in which the bodies bad oonduoled their businei&V They had certain amount of local works to do, and the revenue was derived from certain sources, such as licensing fees to. He.had.knbwn\Counties who had' subsist'■! ..).'• ted entirelyjon dogs, viz., the Dog Tax. The.'Government bad lately abolished subsidies to)' these local governing bodies, : , whicli .shewed they were gradually.' 4 . I '. . abandoning them, 'tit true they allow ■'..;« them ah opportunity of borrowing money trader'trie Jtoid* and Bridges Conatruo- ::■.... tion Act.- He could not understand how ~-..'■'• it was that it was necessary to have i &'•;:■ County .Council governing the work that'll; a Highway Board could do. In this .:; .. distriot a main road had been proclaimed '>*;:■;,■'.; and madei and then diverted in the ~\i ;■■■ direction pi one of the members of lbs v '■: district, he.did not blame the member, it ••• only made the old proverb tme, which iays ita better to be born lucky than rich. The speaker then dwelt upon the great ■... > injustice done to the community by the -•'■ deviation if main roads to benefit certain} olasses, and called attention"to themariner'. • in which the County Councils and High* way Boards were taking each others "■, places in different parte of the oolony. ■■■■■ - The question of County officials' salaries was then gone into which' the speaker considered very exorbitant, amounting as it did to £I3OO ayear,- and then £7OO was paid by the Highway Board, this wai more than the gross income of the Mmtortohßorough Council. He considered •- that the whole of the work dißtriot could be done by the staff of'-.tho Masterton Highway Board. The' Counties abolish Toll Gates, make an extra rateill at otie meeting, without'oven askingrtheir constituenti. wayConnty Government is to be carried on, the people have to be thankfulthat the rates are not quadrupled. TheSpeakerwetitexhrfus' tively into the Bysteni. : :of main .road making, .which he considered. a;'great injustice to the community, as.tho; Gov» , ernmont did not contribute towards their maintenance, whioh'was a bonsiderable item in the County and tore; and'it was ■ jdii this jacoouhl ;,tfip.A y y/' County rata was heoessary.vHe •': bymairitainihgthatjtwas'notnecessity'' : ; \:: havey oiir''present : competent-Highway Board., ,v:'- : -':'p-'" Mr B«etbam expressed the great plea-

.Mire he felt iu being ablei to"have an opportunity of answering Mr' Hogg's .arguments,.as be could dot do so when they appeared in the columns of his paper,' Ho corrected a few orrors iu the opener's remarks, Mr Beetham tnen;:went:over some of the ground of' bis speech as delivered in the Theatre, alew weeks- ago in reference to County , Government, and alluded to the principles of the Act, especially to that position in which the Government had given t.hoso. help whb/'interidel to' help' themselves.' With respect to main n ads in this district he contended''th.at.lhn ii- t > n.'cntatiyos had done their best m sir.« ii« immunity in getting these uiado, ui.di a«,"t!> the remarks that they had been, made ut, serve private individuals, he must gito i a direct denial, The statements ting the figures were.questionable, and he would adviso anyone requiring a correct statement to go to tho county offices when the papers would be at their disposal.- 'As to the exorbitant expenses that had been spoken of, he could tell the meeting that the engineering work of this district bad been carried on 25 per cent.cheaper than any other county in the colony,' Jf. the time Bhould arrive wheu one body would be able to do the work ofipounty East ho would not oppose it, but at present they had quite sufficient work for, the whole of their staff. In.the event of another Highway Board being formed, 1 or of two more, what power would the staff of the Maslenon Highway Biardiiavo over thesa several board; 1 UndertWAct they could all obtain the .ienices.oft.be county staff. Respecting the,.t.wy rates.spdkon of, he inferred thatMr Hogg thought that the same arniunt of wore could be done with one rate as two. "If the question of maintenance was gone'irilo'it-did'.'not nutter whether the rateiwas'levied by the County or Highway Board.'.:' The speaker dwelt upon .the works being ; carriod out both by the County ,and Highway Boards, and thought that the Maatoriou Highway Board had no necessity to levy more than a farthing rate] unless thoy went in for new works, as he considered it would bo quite sufficient for the maintenance of their preseut roads; Mr ;'McCardle coincided with the opener 1 of the. debate, and, like the loader of,the Opposition in the House of Repre88niaTjves wished Mr Beetham was a man that he could piich into, but he was such a genial and agreeable fellow that one could not pick a quarrel with him, His opinion of the oarly history of County Government was that it was made merely lo give would-be poluioiangan opportunity .to dabble in poli'ics, He considered our Bjitem of County Government far too oxpensive, and their stylo of carrying out works too elaborate f»r the amount tbey received from the' Government. He believed that less oxpensive roads should be made and bridges oreoted whenever Crown Lands are sold, so that settlers would get to their property at onoo, instead of waiting until tho more expensive roads and bridges of the country aro constructed. Mr McCardlo referred to the injustice done to the many deferred payment settlers through there being no roads to Iheir properties, and was of opinion some would not for a long time be able to get Btock on their Sections unless they carried them on their backs, Mr Macquarrje endorsed Mr Beetham's remarks aboqt the gkeiahuna-Tinm road and said thoy could not got a better pne, and there was no practicable way of conBiruoting any oilier in tho vicinity, . Mr Mc Gregor was suprised at Mr McCartlle, going in for such a patchwork system ; as it was well known that we are now suffering (rum the same kind of work as carried out by the old Provincial omnpil, and when we see the thousands of acres of-yalutiblp land lying idle; through such causes, it was to be hoped that we-would not revert to such a system again, Heoonlendod for the genuine settlement of the country good roads must be constructed, and they may as well do the job well at first as to half do it. Mr McGregor did not know how long County Government would gontiuue, but thought that as long as we have roads to make and lands to open up, it would be necessary, and there would be no fear of them being abolished while they have plenty of useful work to do. The County officials had dune this work much more satisfactorily than it would havo been done if left to the Government, as the former were acquainted with the requirements of the district, whereas, if work was left to the latter they would do it as it suited them without;reference,to local wants ; • Mr Park had no fault to find with the system, or.the.councillor's, in the genual, diicuarge of their duties, but thought there were cases in which thoy were rather neglectful of the mieraat of settlers. He insianosd the Pahhtuasreivauoo where men had to carry timber a long distance in the bush to build their houses, He suggested a cpmmitle of supervision over each member, which would cause them to pay more attention to the desires of their constituents. This is not tho case under the present Act. For instance, Pahiatua road contracts were let 12 months before the contractor did ,a hand's turn on them, It nppoarod to the speaker that the contractor was the maßter, not the County Council. Such a state of affHirjicould not exist under the Bupervisiinof a Federal Council composed of Chairmen of Road Boards Mr Park spoko of theiyatemof Federal Boards, whichhe adopted would cause more inter-

,'eit to'-be taken in County Government. ' •"'jAi'.lhe time for closing the meeting had !,* ,»mved' : it ffas decided that the debate ( until next meeting. 'in opportunity of expressing their views,and it' Jbdinc; 11 question that required a " L ; of ventilating.