The Star.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1773, 5 November 1887, Page 2

The Star.

(PUBUBHBD DAILY.) SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1887. COUNTY COUNCIL r. ROAD BOARDS. «. The above question is still being actively discussed throughout the district, more especially on the Waimate Plains. Ratepayers fear that a centralisation of all road work at Hawera would be very inconvenient for those who live near Opunake. Those who take this view, apparently, overlook the fact that, under the Counties Act, every riding is practically, for all ordinary road works, a separate local body. The rates raised within its boundaries have to be spent within it ; and in point of fact the council only sits as a body in order to see that those individual members, who might be inclined to neglect provide sufficient funds, were outvoted in respect to any underestimate, and to check those who might propose extravagant undertakings. Under these novel circumstances there is not the least likelihood of any undue centralisation ; in fact, such is almost impossible, and we feel satisfied that those who will think over what the proposals, in respect to merging, really mean, must come to the same conclusion as that above expressed. The ridings would be, in point of fact, nine little road boards, each with a separate purse, separate books of account, and separate rates. But so often as money had to be voted for works, these independent representatives would be required to sit as one body ; and before any proposals in respect to any one riding could be agreed to, five out of the nine councillors would have to vote in favor ot such proposals. It seems to us there would be a great gain in simplicity, and a consequent reduction or. cost;, secured by the proposed merging. The County Council has not shown any inclination to centralisation at Hawera. On the contrary, a foreman of works has been appointed who resides at Manaia, aud properly so. In fact, had a stranger from outside the district been appointed foreman, in all probability he would have been stationed in or near Manaia, as being the most central position from which to supervise county roads. It will be remembered, also, that the council thoroughly approved a suggestion made in these columns, that in the event of the road boards being merged in the county council, it should be an instruction to their engineer to visit each riding on stated days in each month, for a fixed number of hours, when workmen would be paid at each riding centre, where settlers could meet the engineer, and plans and specifications of all works would be exhibited and information given to intending contractors. The Council gave an earnest of their good faith in this respect by so arranging the nine ridings that each one contained a township or village settlement of some sort. It seems to us that this system of management of roads as proposed, so far from being a centralisation was rather a decentralisation of management and finance, coupled with the safe-guard of joint discussion and control by members ordinarily quite independent of each other. Our main object in again touching on this subject is, however, to show that substantial saving of cost to the ratepayers would be effected by the change. That this was practically assured by the principle of the measure, by reducing the number of bodies having charge of roads and by providing for a single instead of a double form of control seemed to us obvious from the very first. But with many practical men an ounce of fact is worth a pound of theory, and we are happy to be able to place a substantial lot of facts before our readers on this point. Mr. 0. Mayo, chairman of the Waitemata County, has gone into this matter ; and he has

written to the Auckland Weekly, and has shown that in that in that county there were 18 road boards, but several have been merged, and there are now only nine. The cost of management in these has been 26£ per cent, of the whole expenditure, whereas the cost of county management has been only 5| per cent The county did fivesixths of the whole of the road work within the county at 5^ per cent ; the nine Eoad Boards did the other sixth of the work at a cost of 26| per cent. Where the two sets of local bodies are both in work the ratepayers are paying six farthings in the £ a year of rates — three farthings to each body. In three of those road districts which have merged, the rates have been reduced from six farthings to four, and in two others from six farthings to three. If opportunity offers, we propose to republish a part of the letter we refer to. We ask the ratepayers to look at the matter fairly, and consider it impartially. For many years we supported the claim of the Koad Boards to be the only workingbodiesin charge of roads, and from 1881 to 1887 they were so. The new Counties Act forced the County Council to take charge of all county roads, but at the same time it offered, such great inducements to ridings to act each as semi-independent road boards, that we believe a deathblow was dealt at road boards, and a great, if gradual, simplification of the system of local government was ensured. We think it quite likely that, in the course of a few years, the County Council might find it more convenient to meet and transact business at Manaia, but this is a secondary consideiation, and one which the councillors, so soon as the nine ridings have been declared, will be able to decide for themselves. The possibility of reducing the number and cost of

local bodies and of simplifying the system seem to us clear. We shall be glad to open our correspondence columns to those who bake a, contrary view, so that if any arguments in favor of the continuance of two (at times rival) bodies retaining a dual control of roads in one county have escaped our notice, we may be able to consider and weigh them, and if satisfied of their cogency, modify the opinions above expressed.