The Press THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1933. Towards Larger Counties.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20918, 27 July 1933, Page 8

The Press THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1933. Towards Larger Counties.

The public is entitled to view with impatience the spectacle of the Minister for Internal Affairs lecturing the conference of the Counties Association on local government reform. No one needs to be told that reform is necessary or that it must be in the direction of reducing the number of local bodies. What is expected from the Minister is some indication of what the Government proposes to do to bring about reform. His silence on this point probably means that he still hopes that local bodies will reform themselves, thus relieving the Government of a duty which it has persistently shirked. If that is the case, Mr Jull's presidential speech must have disappointed him; for while Mr Jull admitted that the counties were ready to consider amalgamation, he made it clear that there was a general desire for the appointment of an outside commission to plan amalgamations on a national scale. Indeed, his speech left the Government without the shred of an excuse for persisting in its refusal to appoint such a commission. At present, it is true, a committee of departmental heads is at work investigating the problems of local government reform; but it is hardly likely that local bodies will be prepared to accept the findings of men whose interest in local administration is necessarily specialised. Local government reform can and should involve something much more far-reaching and beneficial than the elimination of unnecessary authorities. The disease of modern government has been aptly diagnosed as " apoplexy at the " centre and anasmia at the ex- " tremities"; and the diagnosis is particularly applicable to New Zealand. Parliament, the Cabinet, and the departments are overloaded with work, some of it important, much of it mere administrative detail; but the country's 700 or more local bodies, instead of relieving the pressure, are gradually losing their functions and their vitality. A bold and imaginative scheme of local government reform would restore the balance between local initiative and central control which was so badly upset by the centralising zeal of the governments in the decade after the abolition of the Provinces. But it is not reasonable to expect a committee of public servants to devise such a scheme. Mr Coates's speech affords more ground for hope than that of the Minister for Internal affairs. He recognises the need for an enquiry and promises, with reservations, that an enquiry will be held without unnecessary delay. Past disappointments, however, will lead the public to attach more significance to the reservations than to the promise. Nothing will be done, it is hinted, until Mr Forbes returns; and it is not cynical to suggest that when Mr Forbes does return he will find the pressure of sessional work too great to allow him to think about local government. Still, the conversion of Mr Coates is hopeful; and if organisations interested in local government reform are wise they will press home the advantage.