OUR COUNTRY DISTRICTS AND THEIR WANTS.—No. 3. (WRITTEN FOR THE "DAILY SOUTHERN CEOSS")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 3857, 1 January 1870, Page 7

OUR COUNTRY DISTRICTS AND THEIR WANTS.—No. 3. (WRITTEN FOR THE "DAILY SOUTHERN CEOSS")

I do not address myself to the task of analysing the Highways Act with the view of captiously finding fault ; but as an old settler, and one who has taken great interest iu the working of the Highway Boards, in the hope that I may be the means of drawing attention to some matters that stand in need of improvement, and also of offering such suggestions as may tend to that improvement. In a previous article I endeavoured to show that whatever amount of prosperity the country districts enjoy may he attributed principally to the local boards ; to them must be accorded the credit of opening up the country. The several districts have, if not cheerfully, at least resignedly, taxed themselves, and in almost every instance the funds have been judiciously spent. It is not probable, however, that a system which is yet in its infancy should be faultless, and this may, in a great measure, be traced to the fact that, of those who were either employed in framing or who took any part in the debate upon the Highways Act, very few, if any, were at all acquainted with the requirements of tb.o country districts. The natural consequence of this was that the Act has been framed, so as to suit districts in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, where landholders are either living upon their farms or, if not, are easily to be found. _Many of the districts, as at present divided, are not at all in accordance with the wishes of the settlers ; but though, by chmse 3rd, the power of altering and amending those districts rests with the Superintendent, yet it is the duty of the ratepayers themselves, through the medium of their Highway Trustees, to draw his attcnt'ou to such alterations as they may think requisite. It is not to be supposed that his Honor or his advisers are either acquainted vtith, or will trouble fchemselvos about, matters of detail which can be of interest only to the parties concerned. The 5th clause is the first to which I fkid it necessary to draw much attention. The vagueness with which it speaks of public roads, &c, has already given rise to much doubt and difficulty, and has, it is to_ be feared, so\rn the seeds of much lifigption. The question suggests itself, What is a public road? There have come under my own immediate observation instances of different Governments htiVing employed different surveyors to lay off divers roads starting from the same poiut, and eventually to arrive at the same destination ; in some instances the roads run nearly parallel to one another, and each not much superior to its neighbour. I will not pause to inquire into the motives which could have induced Governments to spend money in this manner, but what are the highway trustees to do? The roads are jill equally Government roods, and consequently, we should imagine, equally public roads. Tfc is gcnerallv understood that the Government has no't the power to run more than one line of road through any one piece of property, and yet here may be tiro or three, only one of which can be legal or necessary. It may, however, so happen that thero is an immediate necessity fov that one, aod the difficulty is to determine which of them is to be the public road. By the 41sfc clause the Superintendent has undoubtedly the power not only to proclaim a road a public thoroughfare, but also to compel the trustees to make that road passable before they commence any other work ; but it is expressly stipulated that he can only " proclaim one such main thoroughfare iu each highway district of the province." Is there only one main thoroughfare in each district? Is there to be provision raade for altering only one road P There has scarcely been a line of road surveyed which might not be improved upon. As the country becomes more opened, and the settlers become more acquainted with its nature, it is often found that a deviation to this side or that of the course originally intended might effect a considerable reduction in the expense of building a bridge or draining a s wamp,or that a large cutiing may be entirely avoided. There remains then the difficulty of determining between one or more roads, and also of making an alteration in a part of any given road. By the 39th clause it is made lawful for the Superintendent, "upon the recommendation of the trustees, and with the consent of all the owners of land abutting on said road/' under certain conditions, to close such road This is all very well.as far as it goes : it provides for the abolition of a useless road; but it does not give the power to make any one of the roads a public road, or to legalise the diversion of a road one hair's breadth from the line already surveyed. It may be said that the owners of the land required might make it over to the trustees, to become public property for the public use. I do not see that the trustees have the power to receive or hold it. Their powers and functions .are clearly defined : they are to have the care of public roads, to repair the same, and to have the control and expenditure of money collected under this Act. There is here an evident intention to control and define the powers of the Boards. There is another drawback : it is said that a road may be closed " on the recommendation of the trustees and with tho consent of all the owners of the land abutting." Is it not probable that if the line runs through, several properties the owner of some one'or more o£ them will be either au obstructive cantankerous man, or one who will not give way unless he is paid for doing so? If the interests of a district are to be considered, and are thought of more importance than individual pleasure, then, a question of this importance should be placed beyond the caprice or interference of any one person. The trustees and the Provincial Engineer having both coincided in the advantage or necessity of such, alteration, let it at once be made,' and any award thafc,aiay be de-; termined. by arbitration or by a fixed scale be given to the^ proprietor. These are f all speculative cases:; every- argument which' I, have used has been suggested by some incident which, has come under my own observation. There are instances—

numerous instances—when' the trustees, haying been unable, legally, to effect an alteration which they thought necessary, | hare preferred to make it, and trust to the chapter of accidents that all will eventually come right. !The course generally adopted by them has been to receive from the person, in whose land the deviation has been made, a memorandum to the effect that he will, when called upon, transfer the land in question to the Trustees as public property. In some cases owners have died, land has changed hands, or it has been discovered that land, which was supposed at the time to be unincumbered, was in reality heavily mortgaged. In fact, a host of legal difficulties will arise, and the lawyers reap a rich harveBt,before the question of public roads in the highway districts shall be definitely settled. I am willing to admit that many of these alterations have been most judicious, but still it is a dangerous precedentto allowthem, especially as long as proxy-voting continues without a check upon it, for there is no guarantee that alterations may not be made to serve private ends— it is quite*possible that such may have already been the case. And here another phase of the question presentB itself to our notice : the Act states that the Trustees are elected to repair and maintain public roads. HoWj thenj can they be justified in spending public trust-money, let their motive be ever so pure, upon private land ? At the time the work is undertaken and the money spent, it is impossible that they can conscientiously affirm that such land will ever be public land— such work ever be public work. They have probably, according to their own judgment, been acting in a manner that will eventually tend to the ultimate advantage of the district ; but how will the ratepayers feel, should they some day find that the bridges, which they have hitherto considered public property, no longer belong to the public, and that they cannot get on to them unless they purchase the land on one or both sides ? It is the opinion of many that Trustees, who] have spent money after this fashion, have made themselves personally liable for the amount. The offending Trustees shelter themselves under the 35th clause, which says that "JNo Trustee shall be personally liable for any sum of which he shall not have bound himself personally as au individual, independent of his office as a Trustee." Surely, the clause could only have been intended to refer to such transactions as come within the meaning of the Act. If the Trustee exceeds his functions, and spends public money otherwise than for the purpose for which it was collected, and in the manner defined by the Act, he certainly must and should become liable. Once admit the principle of irresponsibility, and you abolish the only safeguard, with an unprincipled man, against jobbery and corruption. When I commenced this essay on the Highways Acfc, it was with the full expectation that one article would be sufficient to master all its details. The matter in hand, however, turns ou(. to be of much more formidable dimensions than I have anticipated, and ife will therefore be necessary for me to trespass upon your space somewhat more on a fum'e occasion. I will attempt to be as concise ns possible, without doing injustice to my subject, lebfc ifc should be said of my arguments that they are as vague and contradictory as the clauses of the Highways Acfc. Z,