The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1829, 27 March 1884, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 188 4. The letters of our correspondents, "Councillor" and " Batepiyer," which will be found elsewhere in this issue, are, we think, a sufficient vindication of the actions of the Waipa County Council, so strongly taken exception to by" Waipa" in our impression of Tuesday. We therefore gladly leave the matters immediately in dispute to be settled between them. But on the question of the utility or otherwise of the county system we have just one word to say, or rather we take the opportunity to repeat what we have said moi'e than once already. " Waipa," in common with many more, belongs to that class which thinks the road boards fully competent to undertake the charge of all local works. We disagree with them entirely. We do not disparage the qualifications of the individual men who compose our road boards, because they are also the people from amongst whom county councillors are selected, and to slight the one is co slight both. Our objection to the road board system, working alone, is that it is not fitted to carry out any general, as distinguished from " parochial," schemes of work. Without county councils we should have no main roads worth speaking of, unless, as it seldom happens, the main road in any particular road district happened to suit the convenience of the majority of the ratepayers. Nor can anyone blame the ratepayers ; they are naturally anxious that their rates shall go to make and maintain that thoi'oughfare which connects their farms with the centre of population standing to them in the position oi: a market town — the place where they buy their tea and sugar and where they dispose of their butter and eggs. It is a narrow view, certainly, but it is the one most generally taken. The case; of the Cambridge Eoad District is one that presents itself as an instance, though thero are many more. No one who has lived long in the district can be ignorant of the existence of a long-established feud between what were known as the " main road" and "district road" parties, or how at election times both factious were wont to beat up their supporters in the endeavour to put in the proper " ticket." Fortunately for everybody the interests were pretty evenly balanced, else the present excellent road between Cambridge and Hamilton had perhaps been an impassable quagmire. Limited, as has been its power, the county council has done a vast amount of good in the Waikato County, not so much by doing the physical work itself, as by the exercise of an intelligent supervision over the operations of the road boards. So far as we can judge, the Waipa Council is doing for the neighbouring county a similar work in a more thorough manner. What the council is doing is to a certain extent an experiment, but the chances of success outweigh the possibilities of failure ; and it is simply absurd tD indulge in such wholesale condemnation as " Waipa" | goes in for. If only people would sometimes try to make the best ofthings and not the worst, the two institutions, the county council and the road board, would jog along together very amicably, each performing its own special work in an efficient manner. Road boards haye a mission — it is to manage the district roads, a business which calls for a more intimate knowledge of localities than the members of a council, can be expected to possess. A council, it charged with the maintenance of l)jr-j»oads, would naturally delegate its poweyg fo £#$- vidual members, and the result, in two many cases, would be the perpefcration of jobs. Bub when each body is given its own proper work to do, the mos| will be got for the

money invested, and jobbery is almost impossible. We hope the opponents of the county system will keep in mind these facts when they are next tempted to abuse it.