The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1889.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2668, 17 August 1889, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1889.

It is the intention of the Government to move for the appointment of a Royal Commission to enquire into what form of local-government is best applicable to the colony. They will ask Parliament to consent to their proposal, when that august body, the House of Representatives, pauses in its career of obstructive folly sufficiently to allow a little useful legislation to be effected before the members scamper off to their homes. The object the Government have in view in connection with the proposed Commission, is to check the tendency of late years to centralise all control over the internal affairs of the country in Wellington, and to devise the most practical, as well as simplify the method for carrying on purely domestic administration. No doubt, the wish of the Ministry is to enter thoroughly into the question during the recess, in order to devise the necessary measure, and make it an important feature of their policy at the next general election. It is well that the Government is taking this course. We firmly believe that there are few reforms more, earnestly needed by the people than that of a reconstruction of our general administrative system. Indeed, it enters very largely in that wide scheme of retrenchment for which the country has been striving, so far with very small results. True economy can never be achieved until the machinery in present use for managing the aflairs of so small a population as that of New Zealand, is shorn of much of its curnbcrsomcness. AVe have written a great deal on this subject during the past two years, and we have watched public feeling growing in favour of the opinions so often enunciated in these columns. That is a great and statemanlike statute which has recently come into operation in England, the

Local Government Act of the Salisbury Government, which created County Councils with large powers, and consolidated a number of conflicting local bodies. Something is needed based on similarprinciples to Mr Ritchie's Act, and moulded to fit in with the particular circumstances of this colony. An inclination in the direction of increasing the responsibilities of local bodies has been shown in the case of district hospitals and charitable aid. Hut, we want to go far beyond that and dispense altogether with the red-tape dominance of Wellington officialdom in our own affairs. Each district should have one strong governing elective body, with large powers of administration, and should be entrusted with the expenditure of the revenues derived from all sources within in its own boundaries, and with the control of all matters pertaining to the peace, order and requirements of its own population. Besides hospitals and charitable aid, the County Councils could assume the control of public education, superseding the Education Board and school committees; they could have the management of the police, Crown lands and reserves, the settlement of wastelands, and many other matters that would relieve the General Government of a vast quantity of parish business which should rot belong to it. Reform in this direction is an imperative necessity, and would, if wisely provided, tend to rehabilitate the colony as much as any other course that can be adopted. It would remove jobbery and corruption from the step nowsosadly needed But in this, also, we come to the point before sounded as the keynote. We never can secure any good to the country until we have a better Parliament composed of a totally different set of men, men who have some patriotism in them. That is our first duty; to elect another Parliament.