TOO MANY COUNTIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 270, 14 October 1932, Page 10

TOO MANY COUNTIES

EXTRAVAGANCE IN PAST. STATE SUBSIDY SYSTEM. County administration and finance was the subject of a paper read by Mr G. T. Murray, a former district Public Works engineer, before the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Town Planning Institute. Mr Murray gave the opinion that if the Local Government Loans Board had been established 20 years ago the country’s public debts would bo millions less. In the past there had been much extravagant expenditure on loading and other public services. Inaugurated in 1876, tlie county system, he said, had displaced the provincial system. At first there had been only 63 counties, but to-day the total was 129, of which all but four were fully operative. AVhen the provincial system was in force Government subsidies were based on the population. AVlien tlie system was changed a subsidy was paid on tire amount of rates collected. A single county could not receive more than £2500, and that fact had led to subdivision, which overcame the restriction. Selwyn, in Canterbury, provided a glaring example of county subdivision. The original county was subdivided into nine separate counties, three of which were only about 50 square miles in area. In 1909 Selwyn, as one county, collected the maximum subsidy of £2500, but last year the amount drawn by the nine counties was nearly four times that figure. Now that the law lrad been amended to remedy that defeet the time was opportune for the reduction of counties to the original number. Tlie areas of tlie counties ranged from 37 square miles (Peninsula) to 4419 square miles (Westland), the average being 790 square miles. The ideal area for a eounty was 1-iOO square miles. Referring to the large number of local authorities in New Zealand, Mr Murray said that in 1912, when the total was 662, an organised effort to reduce the number had been made, but at April of tire present year tlie total stood at 677. In 1931 the receipts of the counties were £3,961,256, of which £1,400,000, or over one-third, was from Government sources, and £298,000 from loan moneys. Loan indebtedness had increased tremendously. Loan charges had advanced from 9s 6d a head in 1891 to 63s lid in 1931. In the counties alone the increase in loan indebtedness from 1919 to 1928 was 92 per cent, per capita. The general rate on account of county roads rose from 23s in 1922 to 42s in 1929, whereas for borough roads the rate of 27s remained practically the same in that period. In conclusion, Mr Murray said that it was time to call a halt in the prosecution of “super highways.” The country was already remarkably well roaded, and what was wanted at the present time was a thorough system of maintenance.