WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1912. POSSIBLE COUNTY CHANGES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 19 June 1912, Page 4

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1912. POSSIBLE COUNTY CHANGES.

There seems to be some conflict of opinion as to what decisions, on some of the essentials, the Local Government Conference recently held in Wellington really did arrive at. In his opening address the Minister indicated a very considerable reduction in the number of county councils in the dominion, and the impression was left that, in the-Govern-ment's proposals at least half would have to go out. Mr J. Quin, chairman of the Eitham Council, and one of the delegates at Wellington, in a brief report which he made to his Council on the Bth instant, indicated that that was practically the feeling of the conference, and that it was a foregone conclusion that the number of county councils woulu be reduced by about one-half. In giving his impressions of what would most likely happen in Southern Taranaki,, Mr Quin said that probably the Waimate West, Egmont, and part of the Eltham, Hawera, and Stratford counties would be merged into one county embracing all the country seawards from the Wellington-New Plymouth railway, bounded on the south by a line running through Princes street, Hawera, and on the north by a line running through Rahotu, and joining the railway line a little north of Stratford. He observed that in such a compact county there would be no necessity for toll-gates. He added, too, that the headquarters could be at some central spot, say Kapuni, where all the plant could be housed, and one first-class engineer, with a competent staff, could better control the whole work than were it done pjiecenieal and under divided authority. On the other hand, Mr Maxwell, a member of the Egmont County Council, and another of the delegates to the Conference, told a different story to his Council on the 14th instant. He disagrees with Mr Quin's deductions, and contends that the final opinion of the Conference was that all J easonably-sized counties should remain as. at present; that, with the multiplicity of duties now imposed upon them, they could not very well be given much wider areas. However, there were, it was folt, many instances where the counties were altogether too small, and the cost of administration out of proportion to the revenue received; and, in one case where there were two aspirants to the chairmanship of a council, a separate county was actually formed, so that each man should have a chairmanship! J his was indeed "local government" with a vengeance. Anyway, Mr Maxwell showed that he was clearly under the.impression that the Conference came to the conclusion that the utmost reduction that could be made would be from UU (the number of existing County Councils) to 80. However, the printed report will probably give the fuil history of the Conference: but it remains to be seen whether a practical Local Government Bill will be dealt with during the coming session of Parliament. *£ .1?ns 1 sel1. the Minister of Internal Affairs, has stated that this will be the case 5> and that the Bill which the Cabinet lias prepared will solve the whole question or local government finance As we said a fortnight ago, we must all hope that Mr Russell" proves a true prophet.