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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3909, 8 May 1877, Page 2

The Poverty Uai/ Standard, in an article which is not throughout complimentary, gives us the credit of having "from the outset certainly given close attention to the Counties Act, and the several Acts connecting with and surrounding it." It proceeds to quote our leading article of Monday, May 3, on the subject of the county and road board subsidies, and adds : — " We may say of ourselves, that we have become gray-haired with the reading and interpreting colonial ordinances ; but with due patience and the necessary amount of labor we have generally arrived at an understanding of what has been the intention of the f miners. But there are parts of the County Council Act which have quite beaten us, and we have long given up all pretensions to understanding it as a whole, or in its several parts. It is possible we may yet receive enlightenment on ' a good time coming,' but as yet to us it has not come. If the Herald be correct, and we are inclined to believe that it is, then it becomes with us a matter of serious consideration whether our road boards should merge into the county or remain intact. The subject must not be allowed to sleep." There is no doubt that the way for counties like Cook or Wairoa to make the most money out of the Government would be to get their district divided into two road boards, and let the rating be done by them. It may indeed be worth their while to do this, unless the Financial Arrangements Act is amended next session, as we trust it will be, so as to do away with the absurd provision which makes road board rates twice as productive as county rates.