The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27. 1885. LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 147, 27 May 1885, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27. 1885. LOCAL GOVE RNMENT.

Major Atkinson, speaking at ; Hawera, said there was no doubt good local government was the root of the prosperity of a country ; but good local Government was entirely dependent upon the public spirit and energy of the ratepayers of the country. Unfortunately the tendency of the ratepayers was this : if they discovered a mud-hole, they ran to their member to stir up the Government to fill up the hole. They were constantly asking Jove to do for them what they ought to do for themselves, and no local Go. verriment wonld be satisfactory until ratepayers had determined to be more independent m the way of doing matters themselves. He did not say that there should not be assistance from the central authority. There should be, but the ratepayers must be got to believe that the duty was upon them of providing necessary funds, and not upon some outside body." When the present Government had come into office, they were supported by men who desired restoration of provinces, some who had always been provincialists, and others who had taken part m the abolition of the provinces, but had recanted their faith. The Government was not only supported by these men, but raised hopes m many minds that such desires would be gratified. Larger bodies, with extended powers, was the phrase, but what did they find-~that the Government having been a few months m power, and having had an opportunity of looking into the matterssaid there could be no' restoration of provincialism. The Colonial Treasurer declared that there was to be nothing of that kind ; that there were local bodies enough, and all that was wanted was most assured finance, and he had told the people at Christchurch that he had been deputed to do the finance part of the business, and that the Premier would draft the general scheme. What a very nice Bill it would be, nnd what would people not give to. see the proposals, as originally drafted, by these two hon. gentlemen ; for there were no two men m the colony who held more diverse views with respect to life and objects of life than these two hon. gentlemen. He learnt from Sir J. Vogel's speech at Dunedin that they were not going to abolish the road boards, but they were going to kill them by slow degrees — that they were going to give them inducements to come into the county government. 'In other words the road, boards were to be deprived of advantages and placed under disabilities, m order that the people might prefer county government. What this really meant was that there was no trust m the ratepayers of the country. The principle on tvhich the late Government always went was that the ratepayers m those matters must work out their own salvation— they must determine what form of local government was the better, and__that it was "impossible .Jte inTpose any measure upon this country which would be satisfactory unless it was first worked out by the people themselves. He quite agreed that the unit of local government must be the road board, and if any mistake had been made m the past, it Was possibly that the Counties Act was passed. What they ■huuld have done was to have relied upon the road board system, but given the road boards power to unite for certain purposes, "ucli as for the purpose of carry ing on larger works m their districts. Then they were told that they were to have assured finance; that had been the cry for the last ten years, and what did it all amount to ? — that the people must put their hands m their pockets if they wanted more money. New schemes might look nice, but it came down to that m the end. But it was not possible to make roads out of rates, and therefore it came to this — that they must borrow money for making roads. What the Government were going to propose m that respect he did not know, except it was to subsidise, but he could not conceive how subsidies could be made satisfactory to the poorer districts. Subsidies would not provide for making roads. Subsidies might be given for maintenance of roads throughout the country and for this reason, that the localities maintaining roads were not equally taxed, owing to the extra external traffic which sometimes passed over roads situated m poor districts. The people who used these roads did not contribute to the cost of maintaining them, and m that view it might be fair that the Government should to some extent by way of subsidy assist the local body. But that did not affect, the question of making roads. Evidently the Government recognised this, because it is said that they arc going to give local bodies greater facilities for borrowing. Well, greater racilities for borrowing meant greater facilities for taxing ourselves. What was the extra facility to be given ? If the Governmcir was going to guarantee local body loans so as to reduce the interest charged to local bodies, it followed that the Government must place some limitation upon the borrowing of local bodies, and if that were done, then political favoritism at once came m. The only way m which the Government could ass'st local bodies to borrow was under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act. He contended that that had

worked well as far as it had gone. The i'rc-mu.'r ;it Dunedin had expressed horror that something like «X\$()(),(K)() a year had hcen spent m roads and hridges, and said the country could not stand it, hut on the contrary he f Major Atki.vson ) said the country not only could hut must stand it, and that the expenditure m this direction was the only method of securing occupation of the country. The country could not ho occupied without roads, and it was one of the h'rst duties of the Government to see that roads were provided, that funds were found for: constructing necessary roads. He believed that the only way to give local bodies borrowing power was under the Roads and Bridges Con struction Act, and he should be prepared to support any measure which went m that direction, but he should not be prepared to support a Government guarantee to local body loans.