COUNTY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1521, 26 February 1886, Page 5

COUNTY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS.

(TO THE EDITOR OP THE LAKE WAKATIP HAIL.)

Sir,—lii view of the changes now being made in the executive portion of the County Council machinery, and, guided somewhat by the reports in c rcnlation regarding the experiments about to he tried upon its working parts. Would it be conaidered out of form, if the general publi; should require to be taken into the confidence of that all important body—the County Council, aid allowed to ask a few questious or offer an opiuion on the subject ? Rumour hath it that the matter is already settled, and that the public are about to witness a very peculiar piece of legislation ; anil they are certainly looking for "developments." In the meantime, they would like to know for what special causes or reasons their old servants are discarded, and cast from their offices? ami if it is true that their salaries are to lie combined and given to one individual? What does it mean—a good living for several good men and the work properly subdivided ; or the creation of another of that class, who, while they are in receipt of an excessive salary, become too full'of importance to act as servauts, ami instead of obeying orders are more prone to (jive them ? ••Why £4OO per annum? Good men are not scarce that would work for little more than half that, and of the chance. The Lake district is a scattered one, and considering the mileage over which supervision has to be exercised, and, generally the satisfactory manner in which the duties of inspectorship have been carried out through hard and rugged times until the whole system of road lines has been completed, and the roads put in good working order, the general public naturally think that it would have been time to discharge the servant when they (the masters) required it. Would the individual with the " big screw" be able to travel over more ground, and content to take tefuge in any shed that offered on his journeys (if he were able to rough it)? Now that we have good roads to travel on in every direction. Why should we be compelled to pay for the services of an engineer, anil give a double salary to look after these good roads? Combine the offices, indeed! The public require that the County Clerk shall be in Ins office at all times in office hours. If the " combination officer" so pleases himself as to be riding about at his own sweet will, he cannot be th«re and perform that duty—and it will be but a poor substitute for the present order of things, if the ratepayers are to be served by a boy ; no matter w ho his friends may be. 4 Before these ridiculous and uneconomic changes take place, we ratepayers trust that a little of the common sense, which seems to have left some of our councillors, will return to them. If it does not, perhaps a whisper from those who bestow ed a power for good upon them may prevent them from using it as a power for evil. There can be no doubt at all on the matter that the public is not prepared for the entire destruction of the present order of things, and the substitution of cuiiglomorate offices beyond all comparison worse. They require their servants each to understand and carry out his particular duties responsibly—not overworked and over paid "Jacks of all trades.'' If the County system is so elastic and simple, as to lie entirely controlled by one mau and a bov, let us hy all means procure them, and dispense with the services of the County Councillors—and their honorariums also. It would surely not require eight or nine " dead heads" to point out the duties of one man. Sir, the unfortunate and muchgoverned public is fast losing its patience at the mockery of government, to which it passively submits, and w ill not be altogether sorry when, in the vortex caused by the struggle for place and power, a change for the better w ill take place. In the mean time we are prepared rather

" To l>ear the ills we have Then fly to others we know not of." —I am, etc. Status Quo, Head of Lake, February 20th, 18S6.