LOCAL BODIES FINANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2057, 1 August 1885, Page 2

LOCAL BODIES FINANCE.

The following ai'e extracts from Mr G. Beetliam's speech on the above measure, {[ejtaea.iij the House on the 14th of Myty, yopsqnting pp of the Wairarapa gou'n|tiesj''j(ayffl)e ( eii iple ij, sort of target pf, I aii) .suppQsed'tq'|aye • unduly used my influence with tjig'pre: vious Governraont to obtain money to which the district was not' entitled j but before I sit down I think I shall be able to show that the figures quoted were not correctly quoted, and that the inference jirawn was entirely misleading. In following w!)at the honourable member for Egmont said,'l should like to state that I consider, and always have considered, that the road question is of more vital importance'than the railway extension question at the present time. I am convinced that, if we extend our railways through the Otago central district, throysl) jthe centre of the North Island," and in ev.ery difectjon where we are now extending them, without making roads at the same time to serve as feeders tp the trunk lines, we shall bring this colony to financial ruin, And the question as to what system to adopt in the future for making these roads is of vital importance to us,., It is said that we are not to take money from general colonial loam for the. purpose of making these roads, but are to expect the local district# themselves to raise their' loans,; I must confess that I cannot'follow the Premier in that respect. If we are to raise loans at all, I think that the true statesmanlike principle is to ■ raise them in . the oheapest market possible, and distribute them to the districts as their wants may require. If we were to adopt'the system of subsidies, continuing for twenty-five years, which was indicated a fefr nights ago by the Colonial

'money, whore would!that have ended? If the £300,000 hadibeen agreed to, it would have enabled the luco,L. .bodies, without taxing themselves as special rates , one penny-piece, to raise five millions in ■ the Home market, The' Premier questions the advisability of raising three or four millions for road-Works. There we should have enabled them to raise five millions without the necessity of taxing themselves even one penny-piece. Then, as to: the question of repudiation of liabilities, ;if the money had been raised under the Roads and' Bridges Construction' Act, whether the local bodies would have|_paid that money to the country is certainly not worthy of being considered when we look upon the much larger question that was'proposed'before, of five or ten millions of money that' it would' have been; possible for local bodies to raise. The question of paying that back to the creditors \vould have been of much more importance compared with the refunding of the smaller amount, paying it into our own hands for redistribution for kindred objects. It has been said, •with respect to the Roads and Bridges Construction Act, that half a million had already been allocated or promised under that Act. I have tried to follow the figures, and cannot find anything of the kind. I find that up to the Slat of March last the total of money that was spent, under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act was £256,380. (Mr Stout: Paid,) The Premier Will find, if he follows the 'figures—and I hope that the return which I asked for-will place us in possession of the figures to the 30th June, so as to see what has been spont up to that time-r-that the moneys paid do not amount to so much as £350,000. The amount in 1883-84 was £108,398, and in 1884-85 £149,982. One of the most important principles in the honourable member for Egmbnt's Act, the Roads, and Bridges • Construction Act, was that the money was to be expended in construction, not maintenance, As far, as the present proposals are concerned, I have looked through them very carefully, but I cannot see'any attempt made to insure that the money which will be paid from the colonial purse into the hands of the local bodies will be used for any such purpose. It appears that we are simply to say to them, ■' Here is the money—do what you like with it; we don't care whether you make roads to your own doors, or whether they are for the advantage of the general public or not: here is the money-do what you like with it." That is not a very satisfactory way of dealing with a question of this kind, The inodo of distribution is a very unwise one indeed. I have tried to follow it in all its aspects. The Premier states that those districts which have large populations require as much money as those which are sparsely populated. Here 1 entirely differ from him, Assuming that a large population is settled within the bounds of any county or local district, we naturally assume that there would be a large taxing area from which money could be obtained for. purposes of road-making. Those districts would have no real colonial works to undertake, They have not to undertake the opening-up of Crown lands; nothing of that kind. Of course it may be said that the votes for opening up Crown lands assist the counties very materially in carrying out those colonial works; and doubtless they do, and I shall point out directly the amount that has been handed over to the Counties of Wairarapa East and West for that purpose. But it must bo understood that, although tho counties that I have any knowledge of have assisted to the utmost of their ability the Land Department in opening up roads for the benefit of the future sales qf Crown land, they do feel thomselves serjoijsly handicapped by these road questions.' All that this nioneyis available for, in most cas% is'to cut rough bush-roads; and the whole of these roads are thrown on the hands of the counties after they are once partly constructed cajißjhg the counties very heavy expenditure }n maintenance, far more thai), the advantage pf 'tije roads to the general body' of the taxpayers. The Premier said that jf there were two prayings qr counties-one jn the Iforth Island and one in the Sputh Island—it might be possible, under those' circumstances, that a fair distribution of money cruld have been made under their direction to the various road districts. What I would ask the Premier is this: How is it that, in the Bill we are how considering, he overlooks the counties entirely, and hands the money over in many cases directly to the Road Boards? Why should not tho counties which are in existence throughout New Zealand have the right and be able to give a fair indication of how the moneys that are to be handed over to the local bodies be expended? Instead of doing that, this Bill 'goes in an opposite direction: in some cases it ignores the counties, which are tho local budies elected by a larger area, and which should have more extended views.; It would tpnd very much to insure that tlje it)orie_y oxp'ended would

do a gi'oater amount of goqd to the (jolqnv as a'whole if the' money'were' hailed over to the counties.' Take "the question of distribution of subsidies. The Premier said that the subsidies were to be handed pver to tljose who taxed themselves. What must jp tjje result of that ? ThW districts tlfat are, we will say, rich.—that have made their roads, as in tnany parts qf New Zealand it is the casoi muJ lyluch will not require for years any njore rqa4s, ar)4 are, perhaps, only levying a §mail rate for |hs purpose of majuke'napee—what lyijl they'll)"! Assuming fchey are raising, say, £BOO or £9OO, they will immediately gay, lf We will not do this any moro; we will reduce our rates until we raise only £499; by thaj; mean! ire shall get £2 for £1; and we may ijo

what W? like with the money," There is no stipulation as to what is to be done with tho money; We simply hand it over to the local bodies to do what they like with, I can see only one way out of this. We must either hand the money over to tho Counties by a vote of the House-so much to this county so much fo another, judging as far as wo can the relatiyp necessities pf pach cpupty—gy wg must appoint a |)d'dy of jseiV' tfj vparefolty examine the waijts pf ea.ch ui'dividjial pounty qr loca} |)Q(Jy- thrqughqut Jfew Zeajapd. Until this'is (jpne, Jet the money, whatever {jg available as subsidies in the future, b8 handed over to the counties, and let the counties distribute to the Road Boards according to their individual necessities. Wo in Wairarapa have beon charged with taking undue benefit from the Roads arid Construction 'Act, I did not hear the Treasurer make the remark, but ho said that we received £42,000 under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act —that was the impression throughout the Hoyse, These are the figures;—Wairarapa East has received, up to the present time, 'for main roads, £9,734; for Hjghwiy Bqard .district roads, £10.580,

Wairarapa West has received, for jnajri roads, £4,020; for district roads, £1,651; total £5,671, I find, on analysing this iccount, that £10,590 would b§ retijrpd »the Government from County East, and 01,651 from the' County West; a'ndalso a luarter of that amount that had- been )aid into the credit -of the Main Roads liriount for these two counties, The Dreasursr, and which, I am''happy'to Bay, I now withdrawn-if these subsidies were o be taken as the basis for raising loans,' vhefe should we end? . The Premier isks, "If we are to raise money out of oan for the purpose of making roads. There will it end?" I ask, if the local lodiei had been expected to raise the

result would be that, out of the '£20,004 that the Counties of Wairarapa East and West -received.-, under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act, £15,681 would approximately be repaid into the colonial chest. If honorable members will con-, sider these figures and compare them with the amounts we were supposed to have 1 received by the remarks of the Treasurer,, they will find that there is a considerable discrepancy. We received in the same time £'8,104 for opening up Crown Lands. I think there is a sum; which has not yet been received up to thp present tiiiie by 1 have received a. letter from the Chairman of the Wairarapa' East County Council, in which he summarises which main roads' have been opened in the county of Wairarapa East. He says the total length of all the main roads is 184 miles, of which length 120 miles have been formed, 80 miles metalled and 60 miles are quite unformed. This proves that there is still much to do. The Premier says it is not necessary under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act for -, districts to tax themselves. I thii)k if he had read the provisions of that Act he would have found that before they can receive the money the ratepayers have to render themselves liable to a special .rate to provide means for the refund of thisi money into the colonial chest, and in the case of district roads to hand- over, the debentures to t-he'Treasury, and in cases of main roads to hand over the debentures in ten annual instalments equal to the amountrequircd to provide one-fourth of the amount asked for; and the residents render theriiselves liable for the taxation necessary to produce tlm'araouiit, or theamount of the fourth inay be paid by the County in a lump sum. , The Bill of the honorable member for. Egraont was fl'anjed under the' impression that the Land Fund would provide a considerable sum for the purposes of the Act; When the honorable gentleman opposite came into office there was a sum- of £BO,OOO to' the credit of the Land Fund Account. The Minister for Publio Works, when he came down with his Public Works Statement, took £IOO,OOO from the loan and paid it-to tlio Roads and Bridges Construction Act Account. The £BO,OOO was at that time to the credit of tho Land Fund, but ho seemed to prefer to take the money from loan. It is supposed by some that the Wairarapa Counties were the only ones that took advantage of the Act, ■ The following were some of the amounts applied for and granted under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act: Applied Granted for

£ £ Southland County 43,130 1579 c Thames 41,® 11,'534 Tuapeka 24,060 9,025 Waipawa 10,889 0,33! Wairarapa East and JVeat 33,732 12,G5( Waimate County* 30,084 8,17£ Wallace 14,000 6,25( Manchester Road Board 22,594 22,59Masterton Road Board 11,302 11,30J Wallace County District , """is 6,000 6.00 C Westland County District roads ... ... 2,850 2,85 C *Not all in accordance with regulations -only £21,795. 0 MAIN EOADS. £ Total applied for 040,906 Granted . ' 177,398 DISTRICK KO4DS. Total applied for. ... 01,990 Granted ' ...' , 53,267 Now, assuming that the Treasurer, wishes to deal fairly with all co,unties, how is it that, by th(s system of distribution, he intend? to giye to, the goldfields £2,000 each more tjian to the 'others ? It seeina to me that lie appoints himself the judge, and acts him to judge at ajl in these cases, why should he not judge the respective circumstances of every uonnty tUughout'the colony ? li| the oas,o (if goldfield counties he jumps tq the conclusion that £2,000 additional is necessary, and I think he has yet to sho%Y that it is so, Ido trust that, in the framing of the Public Worlds Statement, the Minister of Lands will induce the Government to give their careful consideration to the necessity of providing funds for opening up Crown Lands_ for sale, A good deal has been done in that respect with the money which has been granted to Wairarapa East, and a good deal more-'''could be done if further amounts are granted in the future. A very large amount of land has been taken up in that district lately entirely owing to roads having been-made with thpse funds; and, but for t)s,. there would now be seventy or eighty thousand aores lying absolutely waste, that will soon be under settlement. The Wellington Waste Lands Board! of which I am°a member, have brought' under tho notice of the Minister what they consider is necessary to be done in opening up Crown Lands in that'district. It is estimated that to open up'% Grown Lands now available jn the Copty of Wairarapa East would talje fully £100,000,' Of course, I am aware that no Treasurer could propose that an amount of this kind should be voted in one year to, ono (liutrict for such a purpose; but I think it ought to be possihJe to put Qi} the e# mate'll certain'pmtipn (if j)hat amount, and thereby gain tho increase of settlement that will result as soon as the' land is opened up. Tl|e associations which are now being formed to settle Orq\yn lancty throughout the otjlony, arg supposed, to a certain extent, to niake roads for themselves; but it will be very soon found that presuro will be brought to bear on the House to provide means of cqmmiinigatiqi) with 1 their patriot, A oertain amount of roads has already been made, but 1 am oonvinced that, to insure

profitable occupation of these lands granted to special-settlement association, it will bo jiecesaary to place considerable sums on the estimate for road-making, to enable them to reach their locations in some places. I sincerly trust that the Minister of Lands will take this matter iqtq tmd §ee tkt eetttera are fairly 'trqatqd in' that respect, 'i am woll awf),re that he fakes a great interest in these Associations, and I trust, he wiij, when the Public Wqrks Statelet gpiflea flqwn, shpff that inquest in the 'way I have indicated, Ida not wish to keep tljo House longer. I can only say that I shall be only too glad if the treatment of this important question can be kept outside of party lines altogether. J must idmit that I think it will bo found very difficult indeed to so change this measups js to make it a workable system, because Ldo not see how, under it, it j), possible make a fair syitem of distribution of ;he money; but'if, in Conimitte#, J can ;ive any assistance, towards making the Bill a fairor and more workable one I shall gladly (Jo so,