THE COUNTY SYSTEM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3902, 19 April 1877, Page 2

THE COUNTY SYSTEM.

i'e"venu<3s from license fees, &c. , I iniagirte, will still be given to the county intact. That, however, does not alter the situation as regards the outlying districts and road board districts. Supposing that the county lias a sum of between two and three thousand available for expenditure on county roads, and that, consequently, county ralea are not needed, it is not any the niore in accordail.ce with equity on that .account, ,tlutt the residents .Ivithin certain limited areas should be iieWily rated to pay for roads which they use in common with their neighbors on each side of them, while these neighbors pay little or nothing towards them. I think you gave too much importance to Mr Sutton by_ a great deal in remarking in connection with his opposition to the merging .of the Clive Boad Board in the county t.hat the question needs further ; ventilation. "You could hardly say more if it.waa.the adverse opinion of a Minister of the Crown that had been quoted. The reason of Mr Sutton's opposition is plain enough. It is natural that, ha should be unwilling to resign the. little- brief authority ili which he is dressed. I do not think that we often find that logical seqtience, be it ever so cogent and manifest, weighs nvuch against considerations like this.— Yours, &c, X.Y.Z. [Our correspondent's remarks on the land fund question are correct. Our paragraph of yesterday was somewhat hastily written. —Ed. R.B.S.]

Sm,—You appear to have taken up Lieut.-Colonel Whitmore's letter on the comity finances in an erroneous light. It is not the case that the charges against land fund, let them be as heavy as they will, will diminish the county revenue from other sources. It is provided that their excess above the actual land fund is to bo met by Treasury bills drawn on future land fund. In our case probably the ex- : cess will be tliree or four times as great < as the land fund itself. The county ■