COUNTIES AND ROAD DISTRICTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 223, 13 June 1908, Page 7

COUNTIES AND ROAD DISTRICTS.

—— 1 • DEPUTATION TO HON. DR. FINDLAY. INEQUALITIES IN EATING. ■ Tho Executive of tho Now Zealand Counties Association met iu Wellington on Thursday evening and yesterday a deputation from tho Executive waited upon tho Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. Dr. Fii-dlny) to 'ask that certain ' amendments bo mado to the Counties Act of 1886, and tho Eating Act of 1894. Tho deputation consisted of Mr. A. E. Jull (President of tho Association, and representative of tho Waipawa County), Mr. J. Tnlbut (Geraldino County), Mr. C. Budge (Hawcra County), Mr. G. N. Marchant (Startford County), and Mr. W. Eraser, M.P. Mr. Jull asked that tho Rating Act bo amended to adjust inequalities in the rating of small grazing runs, and land 3 acquired by the Crown under the Lands for Settlement Act. In regard to small grazing runs the difficulty was that with the manner in which tho rateable valuo was fixed there was no increase, iu the values,' although thero was in the _ contiguous properties. This Caused inequalities -in values. In tho case of lands acquired under tho Lands for Settlement Act no provision existed for tho Crown making payment of rates, and as a consequence tho local bodies lost this, revenue on the acquisition of -any property within its boundaries. Mr. Jull asked that tho Act be so amended that lands'acquired bo classed as ordinary Crown lands. . In the matter, of tho' Counties' Act Mr. Jull pointed .out that a considerable amount of. dissatisfaction existed becauso of tho difficulty of merging road boards into counties. Tho present provisions of the Act required a petition to be- signed by a majority of the ratepayers, holding more than hllf of tho rateable property of the district. He suggested that, instead of -thi.i,_ the county should bo. required, on a not-ition of 10 per cent, of the ratepayers of a road district, to ttake a poll of such district,'and if -a majority expressed the desire, tho merging should take' place. Another proposal was that where, a -road district or districts comprising three-fourths of , the rateable •valuo of tho county declared in favour of merging, the county council should' havo power bysnecial order to mergo the romaining portion. The want of groator facilities for .merging the road boards, -and tho fact that tho Government woro paying larger, subsidies to v small counties, whoso rates amounted to- under £1000; were tho chief reasons why such a. number of sub-divisions of counties remained in force, and it was hoped that tho Government would amend tho Act so-as-to avoid further, unnecessary subdivision of .counties. ' . x '. .-

The Minister replied, with respect to the proposed amendment of the Rating Act, that tho matter of tho Crown paying rates 011 lands acquired under tho Lands for .Settlement Act had been brought under his notice on several occasions. An. amendment had already been passed by, which special rates were paid, but not'general rates. The request deserved the best, consideration. Tho suggested alteration in-the method of rating small grazing run's seemed one which might bo acted upon. Tho proposal for facilitating tho merging of road, boards into counties seemed reasonable, but. he was afraid that • tho suggestion to merge all tho road 1 boards when tWo-fourths of them, 011 tho basis of rateable value, adopted that course would not bo acceptable to tho House, :\l each road board had the rights of a separate body. In .regard to subsidios to counties, it was unlikely that any proposal on such a matter would be introduced tliis session.