The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1877.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 5013, 14 March 1877, Page 2

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1877.

In continuation of our former article on the subject of Local Taxation and Administration, we now refer to the contents of Mr William Bath* bone’s letter to the London Times of Nov. 30, 1874. The writer is a very able man, and has evidently given great consideration to the subject of which he treats. It was written about the same time that the crude resolutions of Sir Julius Vogel for the Abolition of the Provinces were before us, and we only wish that its suggestive statements and opinions, given at the other side of the world, without reference to New Zealand, had been before the House of Representatives together with those resolutions. As will be seen, the tendency of Mr Rathbone’s letter, in which the subject is really thought out, is—allowing for the difference of circumstances in England and in New Zealand—towards the attainment of those institutions which we have wantonly sacrificed. Had we possessed statesmen of the Rathbone type, we might, by modification and improvement, have secured for ourselves, as a precious possession for ever, the enjoyment of real Local Self-Government, and have avoided its miserable counterfeit, Mr Rathbone first refers to the multiplicity of sections dividing the United Kingdom for purposes of local taxation and administration, and to the serious evils resulting therefrom. There are Parishes, Boroughs, Local Boards’ districts, Highway districts, Sanitary districts, Unions, Counties, and Petty Sessional divisions. He then proceeds as follows: —“ The “ first step towards obtaining good “ management of our local affairs must “ be to obtain, instead of those various “ areas, one primary area for most of “ the work of local administration; and “ the aggregate area must then be “ found by grouping the primary areas “ for those works which can be better “ and more economically managed on “ the larger scale. The Sanitary Oom- “ mission urged strongly the coincidence “ of areas, and recommended that " * having ascertained the right boun- “ ‘ dary for local government, all such “ ‘ Government should be transacted “ * within it whether of public health, “‘poor relief, highway management, “ ‘ justice, education, or any other local “ ‘ districts.’ ” In N! ew Zealand wo had this aggregate area represented by Provinccs, and our object should have been to adapt their admim-itration to the existing circumstances of the settlements comprised in them. This adaptation could have boon effected as the occasion required. The power of legislating might, in all cases, have been reduced to the making of by-laws. Division of Provinces might, in some instances, have been made. Their financial relation to the Colony could have been changed. Other improvements could have been introduced But in all those modifications the principle should have

been maintained, —to preserve a -comparatively large-local body for the more important local duties arising within a comparatively large local district. In a Oolony like tbie, colonised as it hoe been in districts, and open as it is for further colonisation, tho definition of districts and duties for those larger Boards would not have been very difficult. But tho difficulty should at all hazards have boon overcome sooner than sacrifice tho principle. Tho minor districts for municipal and by-road purposes could then easily have boon arranged. As it is, wo have swopt away tho principle with tho Provinces, and wo have got Counties which only conflict, if they elect to live active lives, with Road Districts. The result can only bo confusion and waste of power and money, if they both work, and Centralism in either case.

The importance of those larger districts is well put by Mr Rathbono in the following words;—“ To enable such im- “ portunt duties to be efficiently per- “ formed primary areas must bo large “ enough to interest men of ability and (t public ’spirit in their management, “ and they must also bo large enough “to pay for sufficient, able, and “ efficient officers to assist the “ unpaid local administrators, for Local “ Government will mostly break down “ under the increasing work which it has “ to do, and the difficult problems which “it has to solve, unless it has a “ thoroughly efficient paid Executive to “ carry out its directions. On the other “ hand, the primary areas must not be “ too large or straggling, or they would “ cease to enlist local interest, and would “ become for obvious reasons unmanage- “ able. These conditions indicate limit “ as to size in the opposite directions of “ extension and contraction, within “ which the convenient primary area “ can be found. * * * * A body “ intrusted with the whole Local Go- “ vernment of a district, including the " management of education, would “ attract some of the best and most able 11 men of every class, for they would “ feel that such an authority was charged “ with details of sufficient interest and “ importance to induce them to make “ the necessary sacrifices of thought, and ‘‘ time to share in their performance.” The truth of this reasoning has been amply shown in this Colony. Generally speaking, some of the best and ablest men were elected as Superintendents and as Provincial Councillors, and have done good service. So far as we can learn, County Councils are for the most part throughout the Oolony composed of inferior men, or when, as in the case of the Selwyn County Council, some of the best men have been elected, their conclusion has been, like that Council, to do nothing. Mr Rathbcne points out that the greatest difficulty inherent in the whole subject consists in adjusting the area of taxation to the area which is benefited by the taxation. He states that the principle laid down by the Duke of Buccleuch’s Commission in 1843 was to divide rates into two classes, general and special; the first to be levied generally and equally over the whole area, the second upon owners and occupiers specially benefited. Administratio'S/Mr Rathbone adds, is now frittered away among a variety of local Boards. Elections are multiplied, and no sufficient public interest is taken in them, except when it is occasionally aroused by political or religious excitement. Sufficient publicity is not given to the deliberations and acts of members elected, because the great body of the community fails to take sufficient interest in them. As an illustration of this multitude of machinery and dispersion of power, Mr Rathbone refers to a Parliamentary district comprising 40 square miles and 158,000 inhabitants. Within it there are three municipal boroughs, six local board districts, nine urban and two rural sanitary districts, three mayors, sixty aldermen and councillors, sixty commissioners and members of local boards, nine clerks to boards, and nine separate staffs of surveyors, clerks, auditors, also two sets of guardians, clerks, overseers, and collectors.

The general remedy which Mr Rathbone proposes is to entrust to one body in each large district, exclusive of towns, the multifarious duties now performed by several bodies acting ou same area. Such body to be so elected as to secure representation of all sections of the community. He expressly makes, however, the reservation that no existing special constituencies should be disestablished. Both Mr Palgrave, whom we quoted before to the same effect, and Mr Rathbone agree in the opinion that abolition of a representative institution is not essential to the reform of local selfgovernment. They are in that respect far behind the reformers of our constitution. England has not yet been sufficiently educated to consider twothirds of the whole representation of a people as a trifle which can be swept away at a moment’s notice, and to believe that “ a breath unmakes it as a breath has made.”