FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Issue 86, 11 April 1936, Page 11

FIFTY YEARS AGO

ITEMS FKOM •'THE POST"

NATIVE MINISTER'S POLICY

."Mr. Ballance seems to have discovered the true secret of governing the Natives," remarks "The Post" of this date fifty years ago. "His recent interview with Hori Ropiha and his meetings at Napier, Wanganui, and Wairarapa have afforded admirable examples of both his method and his success. He is really the first Native Minister who has gone amongst the Natives and treated them as intelligent men who deserved to be consulted on matters affecting their own interest. Sir Donald McLean treated them as children, to be petted or threatened. Mr. Sheehan pandered to their follies and made no attempt to gain their respect. Mr. Bryce paraded the fact that he had no sympathy with them. Dr. Pollen fooled them with soft words meaning nothing, and so on with all the list of Native Ministers. Mr. Ballance has avoided the patient faults of his predecessors, and has developed an entirely original line of policy and treatment. He neither pampers nor threatens. He meets them on equal terms, and by his straightforward conduct commands their respect. He listens carefully to what they have to say, and shows his sympathy with their grievances, while he studiously refrains from raising or encouraging false hopes. He strives earnestly to find out what it is they want, how this can best be conceded when possible, and when it is impossible he at once tells them so. He wants to govern them neither as children nor as slaves, but rather to enable themselves to take an active and intelligent interest in governing themselves, even as other sections of the community do. As a result, the Maori may confidently be expected to enter on a new era of prosperity, and to develop very considerable powers of adaptability to the altered and improved condition of affairs." TOO MANY LOCAL BODIES. "There is one development of local government which will soon demand serious attention, with a view to checking, any further progress. We allude to the multiplication of local governing bodies. The increase during late years has been something enormous. Whenever any new duties of a public character have to be attended to, it seems to be considered the correct thing to create, an entirely new and distinct body to perform them. Each little local body has its paid officers and other expenses, and the unproductive outlay must total up to a very large sum. Then when any of ' these little bodies' come into collision and find their special interests running apparently in directions not quite parallel, each runs off to take legal advice, and further, .money is wasted in law expenses, and new bodies of commissioners,:or arbitrators, or assessors, have to be created to complicate the differences under plea of settlement, so as to enable a nice, comfortable, and regular law suit to be entered upon at the expense of the public, which has to find funds for both sides, and which is bound to lose whichever of its representative bodies may chance to win a nominal verdict. We really think that a .simplification of the machinery of'local governing bodies is fast becoming one of the most important necessities of local government policy. The burden of so many governing bodies will soon become an absolutely intolerable burden to the community. As it is, far too much of the public.money is consumed in salaries and other administrative expenses. Each little board has one or two paid officers, whose salaries, however small, in the aggregate probably amount, to a far greater sum than would be necessary to secure the services of a first-class officer who coula, by giving his whole time to the duties, perform them all-much more satisfactorily than they can be performed m detail by different officers. We have in this city now enough boards _ ana similar bodies to manage the affairs of the whole of New Zealand. Amalgamation is sadly needed in the interests both of economy and of efficiency. ■ CITY VALUATIONS. "The total valuation for property •tax purposes of properties situated within the boundaries of the city of Wellington is £4,813,206. These figures of course, include the Crown properties and those owned by the Corporation but unoccupied by tenants, which are valued at £676,810 and £447,054 respectively. Of rateable pro-, perty Mr. Ames's total valuation was £3.697,027, and the reductions made toy'the Board of Reviewers amounted to only £7725, an inconsiderable sum in proportion to the total of the lands as=Bs=ed. The Te Aro reclamation was set down at £68,954 and reduced by the Reviewers to £67,054." TE ARO RECLAMATION. "The first meeting of the Joint City Council and Harbour Board Committee was held yesterday to consider the T° Aro reclamation and wharf questions. There was a full attendance, and the subjects were discussed ;at length. The members of the City Council resolutely refused to accept the Harbour Board's proposed line of reclamation as final, or to bind the city down never to go beyond, that line. At the same time they stated that there was no immediate intention or probability of going beyond it. They also professed the readiness of the council to extend and form Taranaki "Street to the proposed wharf, arid to grant the board the approaches required. Some members of the Harbour Board seemed inclined to insist on a relinquishment for all time to reclaim beyond the line suggested by their board, but others suggested that if the council were willing to lease to the board for a period of 21 years the unreclaimed land between the two lines the compromise would be a fair one. Several members on both sides expressed themselves as favourable towards some such settlement and the meeting adjourned the further consideration .of the matter." WOMAN SUFFRAGE. "There is one reform in the electoral law in which this colony should not lag behind the Old Country. It is in regard to woman suffrage. The English papers to hand by the last mail show that the principle was affirmed by the House of Commons without a division, the second reading of the Bill to allow women who are ratepayers to exercise the Parliamentary as well as the municipal franchise being carried on the voices. As the cable has since informed us that the House of Lords has also affirmed the principle, we may assume that the Bill will become law this session, and that at j the next General Election in England] women who possess property in their own right will be entitled to exercise the franchise. We can see no possible reason why they should not in this colony have as much right to vote for Parliamentary representatives as they now have to vote at municipal elections. It is well known that the Premier, the Colonial Treasurer, and other members of the Ministry are in favour of conceding the privilege, and we trust, therefore, that the Government will bring in a short Bill next ; session to effect the necessary alteration in the electoral law."