DISJOINTED AUCKLAND.

NZ Truth, Issue 276, 8 October 1910, Page 7

DISJOINTED AUCKLAND.

Patchwork Local Government. , Aucklanders are chronic growlers. Their growling is loudest when the wicked, extravagant and conscienceless (jo'vermment is not giving the Northern province the lion's share of the wailing Southern taxpayers' hard-iearned stivers. Aucklanders are always chasing after the tail of the rainbow and lose all sense of perspective m their howl for expenditure on railways, subsidies ior mail services, grants for university : sites , and lavish furnishrngs for an antiquated and WDiw-eal>en .guberna/torial shack. They**^ to "'talk..,lprai|incially," biecause it sounds big ;V?, in fact, they jaibber through iheir bldbmin' 'ats, forgetting all about the beastly "confusion worse cohtounded" beneath their tiles. Nowhere is .there such a multiplicity of hopelessly irresponsible local bodies. And what local bodies ! Within tSe G-reater Auckland area there, exists a score of councils and boards all sucking taxes and rates,, like the suckers. on the tentacles of a voracious octopus, to be squandered again m thousands o*"p6unds sterling on selfishly conceived, badly constructed, and sliockinigly maintained public works— tfnd this without taking any count of the odd thousands that are paid way on overlapping and duplicated administrative expenses. Colossal »xtrava<g)anoe is only a- mild way of expressing the almost criminal negligence 0/ Auckland's incompetent public servants. If the hundred odd dreary intellects that sit as mayors, chairmen, and members of these local bodies were sorted out it is doubtful if a score of sound, levelheaded, honest, disinterested, common sense, and wor-thy public rren could be selected out qI the bunch. Consequpntly it is littie wonder the Queen City (as Aucklanders blatantly call their town) is the most Vackward and ill-governed m Australia. Sonre four years ago during t^e regimie of T^x-Mayor Arthur Myers, now M.P. for Auck-

land East,' the- right hand of welcome was extended to the pettifogging suburban councils to amalgamate with the city, but there were then too many axes to grind and personal wants of selfish, hare-brained councillors and their ha»gers-on to be satisfied. The r-epult was i"hat Mayor Myers' suggestion was rudely declined. Again, Quite recently, a level-head-ed and patriotic young Aucklander, m the person of Mayor Davis, of Newmarket, put forth a feeler to tho .City Fathers to &cc if the Greater Auckland project still smouldered m the moribund- parent Council: It did. When the Mayor of Newmark-et's communication was read, the effect was much the same as if a tack had been placed with Hhe business end uppermost on the seats of the pompous big-wi-gs of Auckland city. Th»y couldn't say f a st enough that the calf would be ready fqr slaughter as soon as the prodigal kids cam© back to the shelter of the • paternal roof. Now then is the time for suburban jerry-Jbuilders to pan some of the miscellaneous, gravel m their brain boxes amd see if there's not a trace of "pay dirt" m somie odd crevioe, which, on further treatment, "may produce the precious metal of comr mon-sen&e. Mayor Davis is alive to what the present policy of divided authority and patchwork manaiqiemient —or, jrather, mismanagement —by groups of beetle-brained,. blundering, shortsighted, selfish councillors and officials moist represent m squandered public money i And, also, that if the present system of local government continues, it must ultimately result m sometibin(Dj not far short of m©ndacitv m certain suburban areas. There-fore, let Aucklanders drop for a spell their yelping at Joe Ward and Co. for money they can't get, because the firm hasn't it, and eive a little attention to tfteir' disjointed and topsy-turvy city.