The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3490, 13 September 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1882.

It speaks well for the vitality of local

governing institutions in this colony that the apathy with respect to them exhibited in this town is not shown outside the boundaries of this provincial district. It is satisfactory to know that the inhabitants of other boroughs take a lively interest in their local public affairs, and do not leave it to anyone, by chance or by accident, to enter the Municipal Council unheard and unopposed. They want to know from the candidates for their representation the opinions they hold, and the policy they purpose to pursue in the Council. In Wellington, and in other large boroughs, there ia no opportunity allowed for Tom, Dick, or Harry to become a member of the Corporation by a sort of back-stairs entrance. If they object to a candidate on the ground of the smallness of his stake in the town they will let him know it on the polling day. Here, on the contrary, on several occasions on which there have been vacancies in the Council, few knew and nobody cared who the probable and only candidate was likely to be. If there have been waste of money, extravagance, and careless administration of our borough affairs —and we have often accused the Corporation of all this—these things have been due, not so much to any culpability on the part of the councillors, as to the utter indifference of the general body of the ratepayers. It is a natural weakness of the human family to desire, as Mrs Gamp would say, " to get along pleasant," and this desire manifeeted on the part of the councillors was only a reflection of the apathy of those who put them into the Council. A time must come, however, when carelessness brings its own reward, and when the people wake up with a start at the condition into which public affairs have drifted. In Napier there is just now an indication of some such awakening, and a conviction appears to be forcing itself strongly in the minds ot many that, with proper management, the rdministration of public affairs could be conducted more cheaply and more efficiently than heretofore. Perhaps the dissipation of the apathy of pest years ia due to the belief that increased taxation will shortly be necessary ; but before extra rates are imposed it will be the duty of the Council to see whether expenditure cannot be curtailed. A Mr Aldricb, one of the candidates for the representation of the Lambton Ward in the Wellington City Council the other day, is reported in the Post to have said, in an address to the ratepayers, that the first business of a Corporation, he thought, was to curtail their expenditure in such a manner as to meet their expenses. He could uot see

however, that the Wellington Corporation had done this. To save a threepenny rate by economy was, in his opinion, a much better way of meeting the difficulty than by imposing one. The doctrine of retrenchment was a very unpopular one to preach and a very unpleasant one to initiate, but it was the best that could be adopted. What could be done in one place could surely be done in another, and he accordingly gave them the result of hia experience on the eubject in Dunedin. The speaker then proceeded to draw an exhaustive comparison between the methods of municipalmanagement as parsued in Dunedin and in Wellington. About three years ago an additional threepenny rate was imposed in Dunedin to meet the growiog expenditure. Of course the ratepayers objected, and as many of the councillors objected as well, an attempt whs made to do without it by retrenchment. Salaries amounted at that time to about £5560 per annum. A reduction of salaries aud a general amalgamation or" offices resulted in an immediate saving of £1500, aeura which made a very considerable hole in a threepenny rate. Instead of employing day labor as was done, the work was performed where possible by contract, with the result that not only was a very great caving effected, but the work itself was much better done. There were, indeed, altogether only 33 day laborers employed by the Dunedin Corporation, of whom 29 were ordinary laborers, and the remainder skilled artisans, such as masons and plasterers. This was found sufficient to keep the streets in order the whole year round. Besides this, 40,000 yards of metal were annnally laid down in Dunedin, all of which was done by these men. Everything else was done by contract. The practice at Wellington, however, was to employ a large quantity of day labor, the number of men employed averaging from 115 to 120 in constant employment. If the work were done by contract they would get 50 per cent, more work done for their money than by the present system, A great deal too might be saved by paving the streets with asphalt instead of with concrete. Both in Auckland and Dunedin the former material was used, and was found to be much cheaper and quite as effective, while it went four times as far as concrete. They had 47 miles of it in Dunedin alone. It cost there 2s per yard, and the contractor had bound himself to keep it in order for five years. In Wellington it cost them 7s 6d a yard for their paving, between the making and the laying down, while there were four times as much service in asphalte as in concrete.