The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1935. LOCAL BODY SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 265, 8 November 1935, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1935. LOCAL BODY SERVICE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And th« good that we can do.

A good case could be easily made out in support of the City Council's proposal for the payment of allowances to councillors, but ratepayers will naturally look askance at any suggestion which might increase the cost of local government. Taken by itself, a proposal to pay members for attendance at council meetings would not amount to much —at a guinea a member for each meeting only £370 a year if the council continued to meet every three weeks; but would it stop there? The council has committees to consider works, water supply, library services, traffic, finance, town planning, by-laws, public services and other matters, and if a similar payment were made for committee service the total would soon be raised to £2000. But the question at issue reaches much further than the payment of City Council members. In New Zealand there are 122 borough councils, many of them with ten or twelve members, and the total number of local bodies —county councils, town boards, electric power boards, drainage boards, and so on —exceeds 700. Is there any reason why those on the smaller boards should be expected to give their services voluntarily if members of the larger bodies were paid? If this were suggested at a municipal conference it would certainly arouse a strong iftotest, and it is the municipal conference that will be asked to consider the Auckland proposal. Last year's conference showed little sympathy with the suggestion, and nothing has occurred since to warrant a change of view.

Those who enter local body work as council or board members know full well that it will make considerable demands upon their time. If they feel that the sacrifice required is too much, they should not seek office; it is too late afterwards to suggest that they "should be paid. That is a question upon which the electors might have been consulted last April; it could have been made an election plank. There were many equally able among the unsuccessful who had given years of service on tho Auckland City Council and had received not a penny in return; they were willing to continue in office without asking any reward, and this should be remembered when a proposal for the payment of councillors is put forward now. Ifc is true that a majority of the last council supported the same proposal a year ago, but when the municipal conference recorded an adverse vote they were content to let the matter drop.

A much, more urgent need is reform of the local government system. We have repeatedly commented upon the cumbersome and extravagant character of existing methods of administration, and the Government over the past four years has come on several occasions almost to the point of taking action to secure reform, but lately it has allowed the question to drop so completely out of mind that there is no mention of it in its election manifesto. To take only the Greater Auckland area as an example, it is certain that the territory would never be divided up in its present irregular fashion if the boundaries were redrawn. The gain in efficiency from a thorough revision would benefit a quarter of a million people. Boroughs are badly shaped, the city is sprawled across from the Manukau Harbour to the Tamaki River, with arms like a Zulu impi, and over the top of the various municipal districts boards to control transport, drainage, electricity and other regional services spread their wings. The system of local government is many layers deep, and every addition to the number of bodies piles up the cost. Drainage and water supply problems are continually cropping up, and for no other reason than that a score of bodies exist, all with rival interests. The civic affairs of Auckland and its suburbs will never be satisfactorily administered until a proper division is made between municipal and regional interests. Fewer and stronger bodies could save money and give more efficient service.