COUNTY MEETING AT RAGLAN.

Waikato Times, Volume 2188, Issue XXVII, 17 July 1886, Page 3

COUNTY MEETING AT RAGLAN.

to im: Kniron. Sru, — There an* a t<j\v individuals in Raglan who haves I>j mi \orv dosiro-.u of bringing the Counties Acfc into force, aad for some tmn: they have Iven going about soliciting ratepayers to sign a paper pledging themsolve-, to di> bo. On it being pointed out to thorn that a fairer way was to convene a meeting of the whole county, they did so, and the meeting was held on the l"ith of last, nmnth. As yon: own correspondent fiom this quaitcr has not sent you any account of the meeting, poihaps you will allow me to st-.te hi iefiy what took place. Though the weather was unfavourable, and the mads very bad, a largo number of settler-, assembled. Mr Billington, who is chairman of the Karioi Road Board, was called to the chair. Mr J. K. McDonald moved that the Counties Act be at once brought into operation, and he set forth, \ery fully and fairly, the advantages of the Counties Act so far as roads aro concerned. An amendment was moved to the effect that any advantage the Counties Act contained was more than counterbalanced by the privilege the county councils possessed of levying rates independent of the ratepayois, and of paying themsel"es such "reasonable sums" as tiiey think fit, under the name of travelling expenses, a privilege of which it was shown several county councils had availed themselves to an extraordinary extent, nil sorts of charges being ''put down to Patetere." But the point to which the meeting attached most importances was the new departure made by the Government of using county councils as an instnrnent for multiplying rates in aid of revenue, and which threatens, if not effectually checked, to overwhelm our struggling settlers with an intolerable load of taxation. The various steps taken by Government to transfer from the ratepayers to county councils the power of limiting the road rates to be levied were traced, and the extraordinary privilege they possess of appropriating to themselves such portion of those rates as they think reasonable was commented on as tending to make county councils, as a taxing machine, subservient to the Government and dangerous to the people. In proof of this, reference was made to the readiness with which county councils have consented to the transfer from revenue to rates of the charge for charitable aid, and by which, according to papers recently laid before the House, a sum of £88,000 has either been diverted from roads or added to rates. The meeting held that if the power of levying rates had still been in the hands of the ratepayers the Government not only would not have got such a large sum from rates, but that they would never have dreamed even of asking it. Already several other rates are looming in the near future, rates for education, telegraphs, police, and for whatever else Government can shift from revenue to rates; and the meeting felt that it would be dangerous to trust such serious matters to county councils as they are at present constituted. The meeting also reviewed the important difference between an increase of taxation from customs and a similar increase from rates. In the former case the extra charge can be met with diminished consumption, while inability on the part of settlers to pay these numerous rates involves foifeiture of their holdings. Accordingly the all but unanimous voice of the meeting was in favour of delaying the introduction of the Counties Act, until the right was restored to the ratepayers to levy the rate as well as the power to fix the remuneration of the councillors, and with that view a form of a petition was adopted and signed by the chaii man, who was requested to forward it to Mr take for presentation to the Hou&e. This is a matter which the settlers here would gladly see taken up by you, Mr Editor, and brought prominently before the notice of your reader. The position is a serious one. The country is in a very critical position. Customs are stretched to their utmost extent, but the Government gives no sigi of abating its mad extravagance. On the contrary, they say the Civil Service is underpaid, and they have tiied further to increase somo of the higher class salaries. They do this in the face of Mr Barrons recent return, which shows that the cost of the Civil Service has increased from £91,000 in 1800 to £2,090,000 in 1885, though the settlers from «ne end of the country to the other have the greatest difficulty in working a bare living. It is in these circumstances that, Customs being exhausted, they tmn their attention to rates, and they find in county councils, as at present constituted, a x'cady instrument for their purpose. Settlers will be impoverished, and the existing extravagance will be continued a little longer. As Mr Moss said recently in the House, " the Government will be in clover and the local bodies will be up to their neck in difficulty and trouble." If the iatepayeis combine and insist on having restored to them their right to levy the rates, the Government will find small encouragement in their new departure, and county councils will occupy a legitimate and beneficial position. —l am, yours faithfully, Wm. Johnston* c. Ruapuke.

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