OKAIAWA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1943, 31 May 1888, Page 2

OKAIAWA.

A public meeting was held as above at Okaiawa on Monday evening. About 20 ratepayers were present. Mr. Hj~ Mcßae moved, and Mr. 1. Bayly seconded, that Mr. J. Heslop take the chair.

Mr. Heslop opened the proceedings by reading the advertisement calling the meeting, and calling upon one of those presenG to express their views on the subject. After a pause Mr. I. Bayly explained his views of tbe merging. It had been proved in the past that there were too many local bodies. There was also difficulty in getting really qualified men for small local bodies to act as officers. They could not afford to pay good salaries, and could not expect to get first class men. The money for expenditure now available for tbe county and Road Board was much less than formerly, and he believed that one body could do the work now even better than the Waimate Road Board did when it was first elected. In the summertime most of the work should be undertaken, and it was then easy to get about most of the district, and that was tbe proper time to have the road work done. The Crown Lands Ranger bad said he was satisfied that one really competent engineer or foreman could do all tbe work. In Waitotara Couuty the road boards bad merged in the council, and it had proved a great success. He would move, That it is desirable to merge the Waimate Road Board in the County Conncil.

Mr. Hicks seconded

Mr. Maunder presumed that if the Road Board merged tbe county would be divided mto ridings, and the riding accounts would be separately kept. Also that loans could be arranged for separately by each riding, which would each be practically a separate financial body.

The Chairman said it was an open question how far this could be done. The Wangauui County Council's lawyer gave one interpretation and the Hawera County's law/er another.

Mi*. Maunder spoke of this, because he held some doubt as to how the matter really stood. He had looked up the Act, and found it vague.

Mr. Heslop said he had taken a document with him to Wellington lately, raising this point, and asking tbe Government to have it amended.

Mr. Maunder said he had received an assurance that it would be put right as soon as possible. He did not care whether the members dined at Hawera and Waimate. He did not think newspaper statements as to the Road Board's accounts were very clear, but he gathered that in the last Road Board account their office expenses were 12^ per cent., apart from expenditure on ordinary road works. In Waikato the Road Boards' per centage of expenses was from 11 to 9 per cent. Seven per cent, should cover all incidental expenses. He found that the County Council's expenses were abouc 6 per cent, of total revenue for last year, as given in the Stak Almanack. | Mr. MitchellNearer 60 per cent.] As the accounts are now, the thing is confused It should not; be necessary to have an expert to understand these accounts. But, owing to the way they were made out, it was now impossible to understand the accounts. The fact of county work being done by the Waimate Road Board further confused the accounts, and he thought if one local body bad all the expenditure and all the responsibility it would be very much better. He did not care what they called themselves.

Mr. McCracken opposed the resolution. He was of opinion that the Waimate district was too large, and roads were too numerous to be efficiently looked after by four members. They would nofc have a personal practical knowledge of tbe work to be done, and would have to largely depend upon the reports of their foreman and engineer. The council might then degenerate into a mere financial body, to vote sums where the engineer recommended. Up to the present, much of tl\e road supervision had been done by the three road board chairmen and the county chairman ; and the merging would throw all that work on the latter alone. The road board chairmen gave all their work gratuitously, but the latter might not be able to do so; in fact, be might expect to draw £200 a year, and then what saving would there be ?

It was explained that under the Counties Act no salary was payable to a chairman, and that in no case could he receive more than £100 a year for actual expenses.

Mr. McCracken continued, and said no one had yet told them what tbe actual saving was likely to be, altliough they bad been told in general terms that there were to bo great savings effected. He doubted whether there would be any great saving.

Mr. Yorke said Mr. McCracken had put the other Bide of tbe question fairly und reasonably before the ratepayers, but it was at least doubtful whether four, or perhaps five, councillors could not now look after Waimate roads as well as ei»bt road board men had clone when the roads generally were much worse and the money to be spent was much greater. He deprecated any comparison between the work done by one body and that done by the other, because the councillors were mostly road board men, and the same class of mistakes would probably be made by them whether acting as county or as road board members. He had bad twelve or fourteen years' constant experience of road boards and county councils, and had hardly ever found one part of a district desirous of robbing ao other part ; of course there would be difference of opinion as to tbe exact amount payable to each part. He was satisfied that the ratepayers generally saw that two road-controlling bodies were not wanted, and that the only change practicable was to merge in the County Council. This had been done in Waitotara County, and an old friend and close connection ot bis was county clerk there, who had formerly been chairman of road boards and a county member. That gentleman assured him that the change was a great success ; it worked well and economically ; tbe council had no overdraft, and gave general satisfaction. As to the contention urged by Mr. Forsyth at Otakeho that the County Council had not repaid a full share of deferred payment moneys to the local body, he could only say that ho was satisfied that if true accounts of all the deferred payment moneys taken from county roads and spent upon district roads, the latter would be hundreds of pounds in debt. On his own 120 acres of deferred payment land he had paid between £150 and £200, and it had all been spent on district roads up to this year. For five or six years none of the deferred payment money had been spent on main roads because the Commissioner of Crown Lands would not sanction it. The proposal would not suit the Pi ham a en I of tbe district just now because it had small funds, there being little deferred payment money, and long stretches of road through wet bush, but the rest of the district would benefit by tbe change. As to the finance of tbe several ridings being kept separate, the Counties Act was quite clear that riding accounts should be kept. Mr. Mitchell said Mr. Yorke had said comparisons were odious, but the county chairman bad instituted comparisons between county and road board work. At

Eltham road the other day Mr. Bayly had said tbe Waimate Road Board had had £10,000 a year for a number of years and had mis-spent large suras. Mr. I. Bayly distinctly denied ever having said 6uch a thing, and asked for Mr. Mitchell's authority.

Mr. Mitchell said Mr. T. Harrold, who had been present, was his authority. At that meeting there wereaboutadozen present, and ten had voted for and one against tbe merging. Of those ten, eight lived on the county road, and might be expected to vote for such a resolution. He had been in favor of merging the road board in the council, but the county chairman bad brought down an elaborate scheme for remetalling and reforming tbe whole of the main south road, from Hawera to Taungatara, and bad lrightened the ratepayers, especially those living in tbe bush. This had put " a set" on the petition in favor of merging, which at that time was nearly completely siened. When the county chairman was taxed with having spoilt the tnerginer, he said he had been misreported. He (Mr. Mitchell) had referred the matter to Mr. Yorke, as representing the Stab, and the latter said Mr. Bayly had had a proof of his speech for correction ; and if it was incorrect in any way, the responsibility, rested upon Mr. Bayly.

A long discussion then arose about the .£125 paid by the county council towards the approaches of the Waingongoro bridge on the Opunake Stratford road, to which Mr. Mitchell took exception. Mr. Bayly and Mr. Yorke supported the grant, and Mr. Heslop said he had always opposed it. Mr. Bayly, in reply, said the real opposition to the merging came from Waimate. The argument he was met with was, " You want to centralise everything at Hawera ; bring the council meeting to Manaia, and we will support it." He was not the only man in the council, and he could not sway his brother councillors so that they would vote more than they thought right to any road. He had favored a loan ; he knew that it would be needed, and time would show whether his proposals were not sound. He had no intention of neglecting the bush, but said if they wanted loans they could raise them, as there was a further £3000 available.

Mr. Heslop thought it was absurd to suppose that the chairman of the County Council could do just as he liked in the conncil any more than Mr. Mitchell, as chairman of the Road Board, conld always have his own way in Road Board matters. If nine ridings were appointed, there would always be eight men to keep one crooked one straight.

Mr. Yorke thought the question for the ratepayers to consider was what was the best course for the future, and never to mind tbe past. He agreed that Mr. Bayly's proposals had damaged the chance of the merging, although they were probably sound enough ia themselves. Mr. Bayly was impressed with the necessity for providing for heavy expenditure on the Main South Road, and had made a great point of this, leaving the wants of other county roads somewhat out of sight. This had been made use of to the hindrance of the merging, but there were other reasons at the back of the opposition.

Mr. Maunder said he thought it was time for the wretched past to be buried, and for ratepayers to make up their minds what form of local road control they would have in tbe future.

The motion was then put, and the vote was declared carried by four against twelve.

The usual vote to tbe chair terminated the proceedings.