LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 376, 26 April 1879, Page 7

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT.

(From the New Zealand Times.)

One of the most difficult problems for the Legislature to solve is how to improve upon the present form of local self-govern-ment The evils at present existing are so many and so great that almost any one can point out deficiencies. Some of these are inseparable from the present practice of giving large subsidies to these institutions. Public bodies resemble individuals in their pronenes3 to try and live on the alms which they receive, and will in like manner avoid all personal sacrifice so long as they expect assistance from a lavish and paternal Government. They are sturdy beggars when in difficulties, importunate and without shame. The wauts of the locality are invariably represented as public wants, as though they represented those of the community at large. It was recently scmi-officially announced that the unauthorised expenditure had already greatly exceeded the usual limits, and the excess is said to be due to the greed of the local bodies. This Is an evident confusion of cause and effect, as there would certainly have been no such extravagance but for the habit the present Ministry has of stumping round the colony, recklessly promising to have this, that, and the other attended to, without considering whether there were any funds legally available for the purposo or not. The practice of giving the largest subsidies to those counties with the largest rent-roll, upon the supposition that the money would bo expended in oponing up new country, has proved a completo failure. As a rule the bulk of the money is spent iu improving the roads near the centres of population, and practically the Government money is often frittered away in mending and improving roads which could be easily kept in repair by the inhabitants then-selves. The argument used by those bodies in favor of the money being so apportioned is practically unanswerable, —it is this : the greatest number will benefit by expenditure near the centres of population. Their representatives in the local governing body command the most votes, and can enforce their opinions without prejudice to themselves or to their constituents. We believe that the amount of voluntary taxation which the members of a district would impose upon themselves should be the measure of its claim for assistance in the form of subsidy. The borough, municipality, county, or highway board which failed to levy the full amount of rates which the law allowed should not be entitled to the full amount of Government subsidy. In the richer parts of the colony, in Canterbury more especially, some of the road boards have actually funded the 20 per cent, of proceeds from Crown land sales which became duo to them during the recent scramble for Crown lands in that provincial district. It is said, with how much truth we know not, that the road boards did not commence to invest their capital until they could find no more road lines upon which to. expend the money with any show

of reason at all. In the North Island these piping times of a superlluity of funds have never existed. At the present moment things are well known to be in a bad way, and as the promised subsidies will bo discontinued in about a yoar’s time, it is high time that the subject should receive that attention from the Legislature and the public which it deserves. In no single case has the evident intention of the framers of the Counties Act and Public Works Act been carried out. Power was given to the Government under those measures to proclaim any roads which they thought of sufficient importance to be main roads. The Ministry have constantly and consistently refused to exercise this power, and though there were perhaps many and weighty reasons why they should do so, the results in certain cases are very deplorable. The county is often quite powerless to raise sufficient funds to cover the cost of re-erecting a large bridge if it is washed away or burnt down ; damages by flood or (ire of any extent, if on roads of colonial importance, must be repaired somehow, and the local body affected at once goes a-begging, confident that its utter inability to cope with the difficulty without outside assistance, will commend their cause to the Government. Iu many parts of the colony the county funds consist of Government subsidies only. These are sometimes expended, not upon county roads (?'. e., those of more than local importance), but are spent in improving the different district roads throughout the several ridings ; the Councillors agreeing to divide the spoil fairly, and to ignore the duty of spending county moneys upon county roads or works only. It is not our duty to propose remedies for the existing faults, which are admitted on all sides; but the most obvious reform which suggests itself would be to encourage a healthy spirit of self-reliance by refusing any assistance except to those bodies who help themselves. This is already done in the case of road boards, whose subsidies are given in proportion to the rates collected, and might be advantageously enforced upon counties and municipalities also. As a further safeguard against extravagance it might bo advisable to insist that all grants-in-aid shall be spent upon new works only. This would effectually prevent the undertaking of costly new works, the maintenance of which could not be met by the rates alone, and which would fall out of repair whnnevei the subsidies were discontinued. In this provincial district cases could be pointed out where the task before the counties is an utterly hopeless one. The Councils are responsible for the maintenance of many miles of road the traffic of which is falling off so greatly that there is no hope of the revenue raised either by rates or by tolls covering the cost of repairs. The few ratepayers personally interested might sink their whole fortunes in the effort to keep these roads open. It is useless to ask individual public bodies to attempt impossibilities, and this is what has been done both in regard to the counties which are traversed by the Great North-east and the Great North-west road. It is morally certain that when the railway is open through to the West Coast on one side, and to Masterton on the other, the traffic on these two important roads will not cover a tenth part of the cost of repair. The individual settlers concernedcaniiot afford to do it, and either the State must undertake the duty, or these main roads, wherever the population is sparse, will become little better than mere bullock-tracks.