The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1884.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4080, 19 August 1884, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1884.

At the Hawke's Bay County Council meeting- yesterday a petition was presented from sixteen ratepayers of tho Pctane district, praying that their Road Board might be merged in the County Council. _ This petition was characterised by the Chairman (Mr F. Sutton) as tho most important document that had been brought before tho Council, and, regarded from one point of view, and one only, it may bo considered so. That point of view is to regard the petition as an expression of dissatisfaction with the dual system of local government as represented by County Councils and Road Boards. Wo venture to think, however, that the petition meant nothing of the kind. Until bettor informed wo are inclined to agree witli tho opinions expressed by Mr Dolliel and Mr Rymcr, which worn to the effect that the petition was the outcome of an imperfect acquaintance with tho provisions of the Counties Act. Those gentlemen did not hesitate to say that they Avere under the impression the petitioners thought that, by abolishing their Road Board, they Avould be very considerably relieved of local taxation, and wholly saved the trouble of looking after their oavji roads. Mr Cunningham, the Petane representative, had not been consulted in the matter, and could throw no light on tho real motive of the petition, which, though not emanating directly from tho Board, had been signed

by all its members. Mr J. N. Williams took a'oharitablcview of the motives actuating the petitioners. Ho thought that, as at nearly every Council meeting petitions were received and granted to take over certain roads from various Road Boards, and no special rates were levied for the maintenance of those roads, it was only reasonable to suppose tho Petane settlers desired an equal amount of relief. One by one the several Road Boards have been relieved of many of their responsibilities, and it is now a question whether the Council could not advantageously take over all of them. Mr Sutton is in favor of tho Road Boards accepting ' their responsibilities, and doing their work vigorously and efficiently, but no sooner does a road prove its utility by the amount of traffic upon it than an application is made to the County Cauncil to take it over. If this sort of thing is to continue, it stands to reason that increased county rates must be imposed. This would of course bo very unfair to those districts which have no Board roads worth talking about; they would practically be called upon to pay rates for tho maintenance of highways which they had no interest in, because those to whom they belonged declined to look after them. But it comes to this, that there must be either increased county rates, or the establishment of tollgates, unless a middle course is pursued by the adoption of what may be called differential county rates. This latter course, indeed, is proposed to be adopted with regard to Petane, but it is hoped that when the settlers of that district come to learn that they will save nothintr in rates by merging their Board into tho Council they will withdraw their petition. When we make use of the term differential rates wo mean that the Council, in addition to tho ordinary general rate, can impose a purely local rate in a district which has abolished its Road Board. In order to do this the Council relies on the 39th section of the Counties Act, which runs as follows : —

" When any road district is merged in a county (1) all property, real or personal, belonging to the Road Board, shall become vested in the Corporation of the County. (2) All functions, powers, rights, and duties theretofore vested in or imposed upon the Road Board shall become vested in and imposed upon the County Council. (3) All rates or other moneys payable to the Road Board shall become due and payable to tho County Council. (-1) All actions, suits, and proceedings pending by or against tho Road Board may be carried on and prosecuted by or against the Corporation of the County. (5) The duties, powers, and functions of the chairman and clerk of the Road Board (if any) shall be exercised by tho chairman and clerk of the county- respectively." From tho above it would seem that tho Council has power to impose a local rate in a merged Road Board district the same as the Road Board itself possessed, and this being so we fail to see what advantage there would be by the abolition of the Petane Board, so far as the local ruling is concerned. In other respects there would bo tho advantage of substituting a vigorous for a somewhat inefficient body, and tho imposition of a little extra rating, to put local roads in good repair, would be appreciated by the travelling public. This, however, we apprehend, is notthe desire of the Petaneratcpayers, and the Council, taking this view of the matter, postponed the further consideration of tho petition until the next meeting, when, probably, the Road Board will better understand the effect of merging the district in the county.