Many efforts to curb local body numbers

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32941, 13 June 1972, Page 12

Many efforts to curb local body numbers

Through its powers of persuation, the Local Government Commission is trying to reform the local body structure to reduce the number of councils and to bring about an extension of the regional government concept to take over the work done by specialised local bodies.

The present commission, which has schemes for amalgamations at various stages of progress for Auckland, Wellington and North Canterbury, as well as others in view, is only one of a succession of commissions and Parliamentary measures that have tried to reorganise local government. The aim has been to undo the effects of legislation last century which led to the proliferation not only of council districts, but of what are known as ad hoc bodies, dealing with all sorts of things from rabbits to drainage. When the Central Government took over on the abolition of the provincial councils, great changes were made in the system of government in rural districts. No fewer than 314 road boards or their equivalents had been established by the provinces. Some were ridiculously small — one board had an annual revenue of only £l4. The Counties Act of 1876 divided the country into 63 counties. While road boards were not abolished, they were made subsidiary to the county councils. This was intended to lead to the disappearance of road boards and the consolidation of rural government into larger county units, but this did not happen in the way expected. The county structure itself became fragmented,

and the original 63 had grown to 129 by 1929 and still stands at 108 today. This growth was caused almost entirely by the conditions set by Parliament for Government subsidies and loans. Maximum subsidy limits introduced in 1885 meant that the land area in any given county would be eligible for a larger amount by division into smaller counties, each of which could claim the maximum. And there were the inevitable squabbles in the larger counties that such and such a district was not getting its fair share of the spending. A local example of this was the dismemberment of the old Akaroa County, which once comprised the whole of Banks Peninsula. Wairewa broke away in 1910, taking over the district previously administered by the Little River Road Board. Mount Herbert followed in 1917, the new council having the districts of the Port Levy and Port Victoria road boards. Many of the smaller counties formed about this period now find that the system designed to work well enough to meet the needs of 50 years ago cannot face up to today’s problems. No sooner had the 1876 legislation been passed than dissatisfaction was arising from its interpretation. In the 70 years to 1946, five

select committees of the House of Representatives and an administrative committee went into the question, and five bills were introducted. The idea of having a commission outside Parliament, to try to achieve reforms, though proposed in 1895, took 50 years to ferment before the first of the commissions was established. While it achieved minor success, failure by this commission to achieve major reforms in Christchurch and Auckland affected its status. The second commission, set up in 1953, achieved very little, mainly because of the poll provisions that enabled the electors to have the edge on the proposals of the commission. The present commission was set up in 1962, with wider powers than its predecessors, but the poll provisions again enable the electors to nullify its efforts. The recent hearings in Christchurch showed once again that though the councils say there is a need for local government reform, they do not agree with the suggestions for achieving it. The commission is now preparing its final scheme which will seek to overcome the detailed and general objections that were raised to its provisional scheme by nearly all the 15 counties and five municipalities involved.