LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 255, 25 September 1935, Page 6

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

The centenary of local government is being celebrated in Britain by cities and towns with the pride that is rightly associated with their remarkable development under a form of government that has proved sound to its very foundation. The change that came in 1835 was one of very great importance in the lives of British people. Through various stages local government had progressed from the time when corporate property gave possessive rights to that of the guilds, and ultimately in the seventeenth century to the merchant companies with their close corporation dictating the election also of members of Parliament. The burgesses had no part in the election of the mayor or councillors, and members of the council almost invariably subordinated their duties to their personal interests. As little as possible was done for the citizens by the close corporations, and large property owners controlled the smaller towns. Municipal enterprise was unknown in many towns where the water supply, sewerage, roads, and streets were but mean in comparison with the civic requirements. It was the Municipal Corporations Act which changed all this, a veritable revolution in the lives of the people. Municipal boroughs were introduced, the larger corporations were reformed, and the new power of self-government granted. The abuses of the past were cured, and from the new administration there arose the tradition of service and civic probity that has made the British system so world famous. The United States in its earliest days copied the English Act, but was not farseeing enough to retain its many virtues, and to-day the American system has no relation to Britain’s. With the advancing years the framework of a century ago has had to carry many more services than were then planned—public health, education, cultural facilities, town planning, and housing—but the system, in spite of not being perfect, remains the pattern for the Empire. Some boroughs may have earned notoriety for extravagant and wasteful administration, but generally local government is carried out by men and women whose high civic spirit and honesty are truly reflected in the progress and prosperity of their cities and towns.