LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2211, 11 March 1886, Page 2

LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE.

A whole bundle of letters in reply to the circular distributed amonp local bodies by the Witfrarapa East County Council, upon the question of Local Government. Finance, have been received. Some of the views expressed by the correspondents are well worthy'of general perusal, We publish extracts from one or two that are very forcible in their expressions, The Chairman qf. the Karioi Road Board Bays':—The Trustees have instructed me to acknowledge. the receipt of yo;ir printed circular.'' They are quite at oiie with regard to the extraordinary and reprehensible proceedings of last.session and entirely agree with' the estimate of roads as compared with railways, but not so clear on the borrowing question. Instead why not revert to the nioderate system of Govorment which existed before the adoption of Vogel's peinicious advice," Borrowing was tp haye bqen limited to 10 millfon,. It was. now more than three tips that, whjle the works are not yet completed- for which the smaller sam was borrowed. In vlewol qwiag Bleotem tke pfetople hei-® luitb

adopted a series of test resolution, to give further aid to roadmaking without borrowing, (1) cease borrowing. (2) To cut down expenditure to the limit of income. (3) Indicates the various items of reduction, viz., no honorarium to members of Upper House'; pay Civil Servants at rate's existing in. 1870; soil Hinemoa ; Ministers £SOO each; confine national education to primary schools;' discharge every man-Jack of the Constabulary, and trust to the Volunteers; substitute Land Tax for Customs, and Income for Property Tax ; do Government work by contract, where practicable, such as surveys and registration of deeds; let one section of our railway aud see how commercial enterprise will beat Government management. Such are the leading features that would shortly bring us round to a sound state. Proportion of revenue absorbed to pay . interest on loan, Victoria 12 per cent, New South Wales 10 per cent, New Zealand 69 per cent. So says Mr Haytor in his statistical work. That's a frightful lot of sail to carry. Vogel's additional ten, millions will upset up." Another letter is' equally good from the Chairman (without pay, as the writer characteristically adds) of theßuaranga Road Board, giving his individual opinion before he lias had the opportunity of submitting the circular to his Board, Itrcommences, "To the Clerk of the County of Wairarapa East, Wellington, near the Masterton and, Woodville Railway, now finished. On first reading your inclosure I thought your intentions ■were <good, but after. consideration I ■suspect you have npw got all you want in the shape of railway communication, and as you no doubt think the first stage of' the swindle is drawing'to a close you wish to assist in the method of the second stage not yet properly inaugurated." The writer goes oil to say concerning the Government "Nothing but dynamite would reform them," There was no chance of reform in the rulers so long as they could get money to handle. The County Council : there had been a complete-failure, and no person having property to lose would have any hand in it. Tliey had misappropriated the monies obtained nnderthe Roads and Bridges Act, and that with the knowledge of the Colonial Treasurer. "No, Sir! You may mean well, but it's the Constitution that wants mending. The extra and unnecessary number of ruffians appointed and receiving salaries during the past ten years, combined with tlioir attaches can only be got .quit of by starvation, or some such method, unless by chance "an Oliver Cromwell should providentially come to our rescue. Perhaps you are not aware that in this immediate neighborhood is the place.where the late lamented Captain Moonlight and other celebrities got their early training." After referring to the member for the district, and his connection witli the Waste Land Board and dealings in "gum," he says he thinks lie could prove to an impartial witness that tho Government has been "importing and fostering thioves of the worst description."