REGRADING SMMMIT ROAD.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 355, 12 December 1879, Page 2

REGRADING SMMMIT ROAD.

To the ,Ed#or 4>f.,.the,. Akaroa Mail. Slß,—By What authority 1 do • the County Council undertake work clearly under the jurisdiction 'of the' Okain's Bay Road Board.?--- : -■'■.•::::; '-v. :-lr ..;■<<»

Is it on account of the one mistake made by) thenChairman in Kenny's case ? If so, I think that they are as liable to make v a mistake as the Road Board, as the greater part of the County Council is made np of members of Road Boards,,the blunder in question and a few others nojtfaitied for their acuteness. ;r "v ■■ ■ V ' ,

If all work is to be taken out of the hands of the Road Boards, we may> simply consider them a body of men" elected to talk feebly of what they-would like to do, and pay a clerk to record -it. . -, • ; The principal trouble the Road Boards are in ■ now is of course independent of Kenny's.case, through the Council refusing to hand over any monies f to. them." 1 'It seems very strartge -that they can- afford to give their retiring Chairman a" preseut of £50 for the fulfilment of; the duties he undertook to do honorarily, while men are waiting to be paid -by the Road Boards for work done months ago. The Council,pay a clerk a good salary to assist the Chairman, and then pay the Chairman over again for work he would have had to do if he had had no assistance. I hope his successor' will be satisfied with £150. ..

As, long as the road boards exist let them do their own work, or if they want a change let each bay have a board and manage its own roads, and thus dp away with clerks at £150 a year, as it would hot cost £loa year for each bay, and if the inhabitants did not spend their money properly, the County Council could check them, and they in return would be a check on the Council, as the present road boards are supposed to be. A case of setting a man to watch himself.*- 1 -;!remain : ,'&c.,

' FAIR PLAY.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT. COUNCILS V: ROAD BOARDS.

To the Editor of the Akaroa Mail

SibJ—Some ti.ne since your journal contained a leader on the* above s subject, wherein you assumed that eventually Road Boards must cease to exist, and that their powers and functions would be usurped, and then- work in the future would have to be done by the County Councils. .Your main arguments in favor of such a course so far as I remember, were the present impecunious position of some of the Road Boards, and the extravagant cost of their clerical work. It cannot be defied that one or two of the Road Boards within the county have :to sonic' extent at the, present moment overrun .the constable, a thing which is, I freely admit, to be deplorable either in private or public life. Yet when we consider the very great clamour for roads in every direction, and that the s Road Boards hawe constantly been expecting i their share of the impounded land fund,'and that the funds at present in the hands of the County Council would be divided amongst the Road Boards as heretofore, it must be said that thejr conduct is not quite lo blariieable as |k (fust impression might suggest. Granted It is always better to have the bird in hand, yet who ever;expected but that the County Council, ■ having divided; the funds last year would do,the same thiSj-and I ask what do they; intend doing with the funds. It seems tome that those members of the County Council who jgot,their positiomon the plea of preserving; the autonomy of Road Boards should be carefully watched. One thing is-certam, the money-was never intended to be kept looked up in the Bank, but to be judiciously Spent in t improving the means of communication .all over the county, : With regard to ( the clerical work being done cheaper by the County as a whole, it might clr might not'be,' just for , the same reason, we may suppose ' half-a-dozen families agreeing to : liv£ together on the score of economy.; but I ask would they agree? Such a higgeldjr-piggeldy mixing Of accounts would never, inaniously, the few pounds saved, if such a thing were possible, is hardly worth the contention. It therefore appears quite clear that if your paper professes liberals principles, arid that liberalism means freedom, it is evjdent you are ,on the wrong track, because, by preserving .our Road .Boards, we preserve a more liberal .electoral,franchise; and we also haveneither honbrariinhs nor travelling expenses to- pay .Our members, and w,Q are also; certain that the rates levied within; will be ?£?",* in thei " r ° wn district.-'"-'lt is almost! impossible to conceive v a l better system of local self-govern-thepresent Road Board system, because if an evil exists the remedy is annually ; whereas by the County system the evil may exist for three years without the possibility of remedy. Even the General Assembly under the recent Triennial Parliaments Bill does not claim a longer probation than that of the County Councils. The County system is merely upon its trial in every respect, both as an administrative and executive body, and it is difficult'to conceive how, the members, who are almost to a man members of;

Road Boards, and in which they have gained any administrative experience which they may possess, can be either wiser or better when called by the name epf County Councillors. It may be more peasant to hold an independent position and defy the electorsat times, but I yen- . ture to assert that in the .event? of .the Road Board system being done away with that before twelve months had elapsed the electors would be clamourous for their reinstallation. Then why grumble and find '< 'fault with the past? 'The Road Boards have certainly been doing good work of late, and the remedy for the mistakes of years gone by now that the Road Boards have gained experience, cannot ber by the substitution of a County Council. Yours ,'&c, RATEPAYER.