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Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2876, 18 December 1890, Page 2

ExAMi'LivS am infectious. This would appear so in the e;ise of sovcral road districts, where apparently tired of the present dual system of local Government by County Councils and Road Boards, the inhabitants are petitioning the irtrger body to absorb the smaller.

At the last meeting of the Wai pa County Council, a petition of this kind received from ratepayers in tlie Hamilton Road District, was dealt with, and now we learn from our Wtiiitnwhntfi correspondent that stesps are being taken to dissolve the Newcastle! Road Board and merge that district into the Waipa County also. Like all questions of public policy, this action of the ratepayers may be viewed from different standpoints. It has for a long time been generally admitted, that tho present dual system of local Government as administered by county councils and road boards, both practically covering the same ground, and levying a double rate for wiiat is largely the same purpose was cumbersome and expensive. The question has been, and still is, how is our system of local government to be rendered more efficient and economical. That it can be so, we have not tho slightest doubt, and we are only echoing the opinions of the bulk of the ratepayers in saying it.

In establishing the county system we believe a fatal mistake was made in not having either the counties much larger with powers and functions, not altogether unlike the old Provincial Councils—the wisdom of abolishing which, by the way, many have never been thoroughly couvinced—leaving the control of the roads entirely to the road boards, or if kept to the present dimensions, the merging of road districts into the counties should have been compulsory and not permissive as at present.

The result of the Counties Act so far, has boon to bring into existence, what are merely road boards on a larger scale, and the ratepayors have had the disadvantage of supporting a dual administration, doing the one work, but at a far greater cost than cither one of them would have entailed if standing i alone. Looking at the matter with a common sense view, road boards, when worked cheaply and composed of men living in the district, who naturally would be directly interested in the economical expenditure of every penny of rates, should be far and away the best body to spend local funds. Wherever this has not been the cast , , we unhesitatingly say, it must have been the fault of the members, 2iot of the Act under which they worked. The time and attention of County Councils, we believe should be taken up with more important questions than tho forming of this or tho

clearing of that piece of road. We are not alone in thinking, that in the above direction, some much needed reforms in our system of local Government will yet be made. Before County Councils become of sufficient importance and use to attract the best men, their area and functions will require to be greatly enlarged. The charge of Education, Hospitals, Charitable Aid, Police, and the larger Public "Works, etc., must be undertaken by them, while the control and responsibility in connection with the roads should certainly be borne by ratepayers resident in the districts concerned. This would remove many of the anomalies at present exhibited by our incongruous systems, and if ratepayers in any particular district were then dissatisfied with the administration of their funds, they would have themselves only to blame. This, we understand, to be the true principle of local self-Go-vernment.