DISINTEGRATION OF THE COUNTY.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LIII, Issue 2779, 9 June 1903, Page 2

DISINTEGRATION OF THE COUNTY.

The public meeting called to consider the position of affai-s in tho bounty, caused by the proposed sG_.Bß.on of the Little River Riding, was hold at the Council Clnmber*, Duvaucheile'. on Friday m_rniiig There wa3 a very large and representative attendance, farmers from must puts of the Peninsula being present. The chair was occupied by Mr Bruce, the County Chairman, who o.lled on Mr Mason, Chairman of Okain's Road Board to explain his views oti the question, he having originated the idea of calling a meeting to discuss the matter. Mr Mason said they were all aware that the County had been first le_B3&ed by the secession of the Port l.e\.y and Port Victoria Road Boards, fi.nd that Little Riv.r was following .uit. If Little River were formed iuto a separate County, it meant that the remaining part would be put to greater expense. If Little River Riding became a Ceunty, the only course to pursue was for all the other Road Boards to be formed into Counties also. Suppose after Little River, Akaroa and Wainui were made another County, the E.stern Bays might become the Akaroa County Couacil, and have the administration of the main road left In their hands. He should like an ex pression of opinion as to what bad better be done. He considered an injustice would ba done to tfce other Ridings by letting Little River away, as tha,, district received a much greater benefit in tie past from the expenditure of the County funds than any other.

The Chairman sad that as thi elected head of the Akaroa County Council, it was his duty to endeavour to prevent the threatened disintegration. He thought, if Little went, it would be difficult to work the County satisfactorily. If the secessions took place, the divisions would be only Counties in name, but in reality Foal Boards with a greater expense < f administration thrown upon their hands. He considered the division was decidedly a retrograde step. These small Counties would not have i tithe of the influence that large Counties h.d, and the expense of their administration must be relatively 1 irger the smaller they were. For inhtance, the administration of rhe Akaroa County Council which was a comparatively small one, cost eleven per cent of the receipts, whilst in Borne of the big Counties in South land, it was only six per cent (Mr Bru-e here quoted statistics from Blue Book). I' it were decided to disintegrate the County there ihould be no delay.

Mr J. Pettigrew taid that in the past those living in the back part of the co in"y were content to see mostot tho money spent in those parts nearest to civilization. Now, it appeared, sentiment had ceased end . T matters were «onsidered from a purely bu.i ness standpoint. The Road Boards thought that, if formed iuto countie., they oould save a few pounds, because, though the admini. t r »tiin would cost more, yet they nc- d not sp'Mid so m eh on the roads as the County did. The roads would not be so good, but the rating would be less. It appeared that in the paat Little River had received more of the County's money than it had contributed ; but in the future this would not have been the case, because t'e valuation of the Little River Riding h .d been increased from £300,000 to £4Q0.0G0, 1 and as a consequence a larger sum in rati" '% would have been received. Knowing this, the Little River people waned the contrd of the Main Road in their own hands, cv. n 1 if it cost them a few pounds more for a I ministration. He was opposed to taking any steps to prevent the Little River Riding being formed into a county ; but, on the contrary, considered they should take steps te cut the existing oouuty into three parts. If they proposed to cut the county into very tmall pieces, Government might step in and stop the movement. Little River had taken steps to secede, and Akaroa and Wainui talked of doing so, and, if so, the unitid Eastern Bays should form themselves into a third countyMr Reid said the real re9bon, at the bottom of these secessions, was to do away with two rating bodies, and that was a matter in which all could sympathise. Local jealoußie3, however, had a great deal ti do with it. but he did not think the..c wou'd ba altogether done away with by terming Road Boards into Counties, for th"ro was often much difference of opinion in various parts of one Road Board Dist ict. A. few years ago, Wainui was at loggerheads with the other side of the harbour and wanted separation, and Le Bon's had not been satisfied with being put of Okain's and hud so., d.d, and had since b.en satisfied with the r-cession, bhmin» Okain's for the carriage road aud other mtstak.s. He did not believe forming the Ridings into Counties would be an efficient remedy, for the reason that he believed differences of opi ion would continue to exist between various" parts of the new Counties. If there wis to be a County Council, it certainly ceuld be worked more economically as constituted a. present, than if the five ridings were formed into separate Counties. If the ratepayers agreed bo do away with the Conn.il and work with Road Boards alone, that w.ould be a remedy. (Several ratepayer., " But tint is impossible.") Well, if that were impossible and they were bound to do away with dual voting bodie., th_ wisest and most economic .1 plan was to do away with the Road Boards and let the County Council do all the work, It woull oo .t more beoiuse the Road Board members did so much of their own work, but the_ they had n-> right to do so. Thi doing awiy with the Road Boards would be oerUinlv economic il. He re?re.ted it would be detrimental to their loc.l paper, and was sure they all shared in that regret, but th .y w .r. no v approaching the matter from a bui'ia... P.i.it of view. It csrtalnly

Mjp.M.d to him thit it Little River speeded, it w-uld Ie better to adopn Mr . et-ijrew'- pl_.ii aud separate the Ceunty info three

Mr Gilbert agreed with Mr Btid that if Li tie River were formed into a County, Akaroa Bnd Wainui. an! the Eastern Bays should follow Bni_. He did nflt think the Government would allow the pirtitioh of the County into such small pieces, and hoped they would not, as he would prefer going on working in the same way as at pre* sent.

Mr T. 0. Hay agreed with the proposition of Mr Pettiarew. He had always objected to the County Council expenditure, and believed if the E .stern Bays were m formed into a Bep»rate County they'oould be wrought mora cheaply thin at present. In he p._t, the Akaroa side had received a very much greater benefit from the Cannoii'a # expenditure than the Eastern bay«. Mr Che.kley objected td Little ftivfl* taking their p.rt of the Oottnty aWay, It was his opiuion that if this Oottoty Oodnoil could not ba done away with, let the Road ** 80-r.s be done away with, slid let tha County as at pr.tent constititted do all the work. If they divided fchS Pe__i__m_a County into a number o.aCounties the ** administration would be inbre eipen.ive than if it rem lined one County, The County r_i.g n-'.r cou .1 then supervise the various works a d tl c prestnt system of making mtiiib.ra of the Road Boards do so much of the w irk—a system which he considered quite wrong—would cease. He bould hot ap prove of tht County b.iug made a_iy smaller than at ptesent. The Cuairm_n said there had been & long and free discussion and he would be glad now if some one would move a definite resolution. He might tell them that Little River w.s d.termned to go on With tkfidft secession and the Bill was to be placed Mr Lauren-on'n hands. Thfere had been a strong feelintr that the Council's administration had been unnecessarily expensive, and he and others, when they were Scab elected _. on the Council, all came in with the idea of m cutting down expenses- Whea they came to look into maters, however, they fouild that without descending to cheeseparing, it was impossible to make the present expenditure less. It had been proposed to do away with the Engineer, and have a dark alone, but this had been found to be no economy. At present the Clerk and Engin eer received £220 a year. Now the clerical • work alone could aoo be done for less thatt £120 a year, which left an expense of JBIOO a year for engineering. Taking a number of years past, they found that the cost of employing an outside engineer would have, at least, amounted to the same sum, whitat at present, they had the advantage of a skilled engineer, thoroughly acquainted with the district, ready at) hand in any a... of emergency. The Selwyn County $aid £400 & year for Olerio»l Work alone, and h« was sure their present arrangement wffia by f_r the most economical for bheii county. Ib .- was a great boon to have a resirUat engineer and not be at the mercy of *ny stringer, when occasion arose. They h.d spent more on the main road than Road Boards would v hive done, because they had pit in perm an- §| ent work ; but that presen*. expenditure mu.t prove a great future eco.omy. Mr Mason did not think th.t if they had a County Coun.il alone it vould io the work uearly as well as the Koad Boards. The five men elected en the Road Boards knew all about the different jpirts of the district th- s y repiesented, and] were betttr aware of irs requirement, than any County Council could be. ' ** Mr Pettigrew then moved—That this meetingffavorsu r s steps beiog taken to have the Akaroa County cut into three pieces, each piece to be a separate County, and that - the three divisions consist of the Little River Riding, Akaroa and WKinui Riding, and the „..stern Bays." He,'believed'the remedy would have been found had matters not gone so far, in a diffesential rate for the various Ridings, but it was too late to talk of that now. Suoh a course mighf have secured the retention of Mount Herber. in the County. If Little River insisted on sever - * ance, they must either attempt to make the movement appear ridiculous by proposing other small Counties, or cUe carry out the scheme and really make the division. In that case, each of the Eastern Road Boards could have three representatives on the Eastern Bays County Council.

Mr T. O. Hay seconded. . . Mr R. M. Spurr thought they should wait and see how the Mount Herbert County got on financially. *» Mr Reid did not thiuk it would do to wait The Chairman concuned, as in tbat case Little River would g*t away, and further division would be refused. Mr Fredericksen said he knew the feeling « iv Le Ban's was to endeavour to stop the secession of Little River, but, if that were impossible, he thought v. best to carry out Mr Pettigrew'a pioposals. Wkat was feared was that under the special clause in the Public Works Act, Little River, if a separate County, n.ight make all other division, contribute to the maintenance of the main road to the railway. The Chairman said that he wished to warn them, that as chairman of the Akaroa ** County Council, he should consider it his duty to oppose p.titinns for the forming of the Akaroa and Eastern Bays Counties, as warmly as he did ths severance of Little River. At the same time he saw no objec- * tion, as conductor of the meeting, to putting a resolution, suggesting any reasonable .ourse being pursued. Mr Reid, whilst opposed to the cutting up of the County, thought Mr Pettigrew'a proposition the best to counteract the action of Little River, and he should therefore support it. m Mr Checkley thoaght the time had come when they could afford to pay to have the work of the Boards done by their men. It was ridiculous for members to go out grad ing roads and doing tie work that the rate* payers ahould pay for. The Chairman concurred. He did not see why members of Road Boards should work without recognition, whilst their fellow ratepayers calmly sat at home and did nothing. Mr Pettig-ew did net think Little Kiver c .uld claim for use of the ro _d. If they did the matter would go before a magistrate, who would certalaly not gr.nt it on the ground tint Little River used the Selwyn County roads ia a similar manner. The resolution was then put and carried. — The Chairman said that if they meant to take action, they miißt at once get petitions ready and get memoersof the public bodies to take them up. It wa. agreed to at ouc« take steps to get m the petitions under way, and *cb- following committees were appointed with that object in view:-Akaroa and Wainui, Messrs Checkley, Newbegin and Piper; pastern Bays—Pigeon Bay division, Messrs J. I .tti grew and T. O. Hay; Okain s div.sion, Messrs Mason and Gilbert; Le Bon b division. Mes.rs C. Fredericksen and A. A. McPhail. . , ... A very animated meeting then doled with a vote of thanks to the chair.

The delegates appointed met at 3 p.m. at M the same place. Mr J. Pettigrew in the chair, and discussed the beßb method of carrying out the resolutions of the previous meeting. Messrs Pettigrew, Mason, ard Checkley were appointed t« interview the q Premier on the subject.