LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 79, 1 October 1919, Page 7

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

A FACTOR IN DEVELOPMENT

NEED FOR BETTER FINANCE.

Stress was laid-to-day at the Counties Conference on the importance of settling the problems of local government in regard to a satisfactory finance for the development of settlement, and therefore of the increase of production necessary to pay off the debt incurred by war. •The speakers'were the Minister of Internal. ■Affairs, the* Hon. J. B. Hine, and the ex-Minister, the Hon. G., W: Russell, the former emphasising the need • for solving the problem of the construction and maintenance of1- main arterial roads, and.the latter the institution of a satisfactory finance in order that!| the local authorities in question might be able : to carry out their proper work of developing the country. ■■■'■■. ■■).-;... After 'apologising for. ,ths' absence of >• the Prime Minister, due; to '.. pressure of. public® ' business,, Major Hine jeferred to the important/ problems in the '• construction .of roads;; and their upkeep and- control. X was - quite evident, that'the present' methodf was out of date. It was high time for a .changed - Personally," he was inclined1 to institute a, Board of Works to define what were main roads,'requiring aid from the State. The conference might be, oi. assistance in its deljberatioris. The problem of main arterial roads was one that. required most careful consideration, and he hoped the conference would .help in solving- the problem and that the problem would.be solved for the benefit of the country. '■ {Applause) ■-..'. , TJie Hon. G. W. Russell, ex-Minister for Internal-Affairs, followed, with a, tribute, to ; what he might 'call the great .unknown,'"- who , were carrying on the work of local government, with no limelight, no honorarium, often with' more, kicks than halfpence. (Laughter.) The first thing that must _.be provided for local- government was an assured finance. (Hear, hear.) He himself in 1912 had proposed in a Bill to abolish the flat subsidy and substitute a graduated subsidy according to. the needs of. the district. '. It was scandalous,. that counties should be treated as; they had : been in the past. If they were to progress, they^ must develop .andVincrea-ss settlement in the backbloeks and remoter districts of New ■ Zealand;,:.,Wit'h':.wa.u., debts standing as they were,,lit ;-w-as\,a matter of the mo'st-urge4t;necessity taat; production should be increased and that waste lands now occupied should be settled and cultivated. This Iwas ; the question;of the day. It was: the'question of developing- a sound', system iof finance in the shape. of . subsidies by which settlement might be forwarded, and by the forwarding of settlement production be increased. :' .-.'..■ ,- . '

The subsidy should rise, even to ari extent, as at least Lake Taupo, for instance, where it might be £10 for every £1 of rates raised. At present the roads and bridges grante were an accursed system, as being calculated in human nature to assist the party in power, or according to the caprice of the Minister. If there were some policy as that outlined in the Bill of 1912, which should stand between the Gorarrunent and loco] government, it would place the matter of finance on ■ a /sounder footing. He was opposed to subdivision of counties into what, in his opinion, were nothino more- than glorified road boards. He believed in strong counties, stronp enough to maintain a first-class stun with qualified engineers. It would always be his (sincere desire to liesist the local government of the country. (Ad plause.) ■