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Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1182, 5 June 1874, Page 2

The brief items of information coming to hand concerning contemplated reductions in provincial expenditure indicate that not only will departmental expenses be curtailed, but that the legislation of the previous session will be over-ruled. The Provincial Government has declared " inability to increase the revenue of Eoad Boards, nnd questioned whether they would be able to pay the amounts set down on the estimates to their credit." In such case the Boards as a matter of course may make no attempt to exercise the functions entrusted to them, the first experiment of direct property taxation wiU cease, and the repair of roads and bridges will again become the direct duty of the provincial authorities instead of their locum ienens, the Eoad Boards. We fail to see what will be gained by the hasty abandonment of an experiment which so far has met with the approval of the electors, and we fail also to understand how local works can be more economically executed than under the supervision of local Boards. Those who contribute are generally those who feel most directly responsible in the wise expenditure of money, whether for public or private purposes, and until it has been shown that the newly formed Eoad Boards are incapable of performing their duties, it savours not a little of erratic administration when the first act of a new and presumedly popular Executive is to threaten the Boards with extinction. The Goldfields Local Eevenues Act defines that, subject to the appropriation of the Superintendent and Provincial Council, one-half of certain revenues shall be paid to the Boards for the maintenance of roads and other public works, added to this the Boards have power to levy local rates, and on the expenditure of moneys thus derived can obtain from the General Government a share in the annual subsidy to the Eoad Boards of the Colony. Deprive the Boards of the first item of revenue, namely, Provincial appropriations, it at once follows that rates will not be collected, the General Government subsidy will be lost, and the entire cost of keeping roads and bridges in repair will become a sole charge upon provincial revenue ! The members of the various Boards have in good faith endeavored to fulfil the duties entrusted to them, but if the Provincial Government insist upon relieving them of such duties few will not repine at relinquishing their charge, always provided that the Provincial Government does not shirk the work for which the Boards were specially constituted.