THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1914. CREATION OF COUNTY COUNCILS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 7569, 23 May 1914, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1914. CREATION OF COUNTY COUNCILS.

| it was with..a large amount of' iu- ’ teresL that we viewed lac report ot Die meeting of the Leuuu-.a Road, ■board ratepayers widen loo.t place last Tuesday. Trauxly we were s.imeivnat disappointed at lac reso.u.ioj which was ult.mateiy carried. Me were not wholly disappointed, bccauuj we Know tliat to accouipj-ish any new thing, a great deal ol proifiiumary worn of an educative nature mum 'nrsj be tionc. The majority of lue rate payers hate enviously not yen given tile mallei- that thought widen is iic.cssury to form a sound judgment. Bo far as argument went the chairman staled the position reasjiUMjly well, and tiie ratepayers present, or at least those who voted for Mr 'ial.jjt's motion, were led undoubtedly by Mr Talbot’s special pleading and personality. .It often happens thus: the argument is convincing, but the personal factor is too strong. Mr Talbot has often been spoken of as “The father of the local bodies in Bouth Canterbury.” ills judgment is sound, but in this matter ho swayed the. opinions of those tpruseal by telling them io leave things alone, a task l wlit se simplicity was naturally atlrac-: Live. ” ’ 1

As a matter of fact the arguments for the one Gounl;,i are diiheult to gainsay. Urn: large County, such at tile Geraldine County, endowed with tlie administrative powers at present performed by three JLioad Hoards, two Jtivor Boards, and the Conned as it now exists, must in the nature of tilings lie more economically governed than under the present system, it is dillicult to see how Ah I albot can conclude otherwise. What then are the diliieultios ? If they are real difficulties, it is the duty of those who support the 'proposition of a big council to answer them. One of, the, dillVulties mentioned is that of the houd(|tiarters. We fail to see that this is insurmountable. So far as we know the feeling of the lesidents ia the Teinuka district, there is no great jealousy of Geraldine. The,head odica at Geraldine would bring no more trade to Geraldine than it would to Teinuka if it were placed in the latter town, and that amount of trade would not be vein- great. If deputations required to wait on the Conned, the one place, all things considered, is as convenient as the other. In these days of motor cars distance is being gradually diminished. We tear that the “head oilier” dlihculiy is only a bogey, which was created somewhat by 'Geraldine's dogmatic altitude in the first ’’place. The other dilliculty j mentioned was Hint there is no coni-' inanity of intrresls between the lower I part of the Teinuka Hoad Board district and the north West corner of the County. What is exactly meant I by tip; term “community of interests” | in this ease we do not exactly know. 1 Wo can of course speculate as to the | meaning, but, any speculation, short of exact definition of the term is not j of much us:; when it comes to logical 1 argument. Hoads are roads, and ■ bridges are bridges, whether in the Milford or in I lie Peel Toivst district. Both mads and bridges cost money to make and inaiul idii. The cost necessarily varies. AVlienever a Gomdv perforins the functions of a Hoad

Board, it is divided into ridings, ac(orfting'to its needs. .Inis would be' the ease uniter Ll.e proposed lag county. To reveal tin! hollowness oi tins "mi community of inlcrc-sis” argil mini I, the ratepayers at tin: moutn of tun Rangitala might. just as well say that they have no ••coniimiuily of interest” with the people at fhe ifeail. of the Wuitohi, and yet they are alike in the Tumuka Road Board-. 'J he Waiinatc County includes the Jlukatcramca district fifty miles up the UTiita.lsi river. Where is the ueinmunity of iiucivsls between tire Settlers there and those who live around Bt.--Andrews / Hot bit. Andrews ism the Wnimat-e County. An unfortunate fact is I hat some of the folks arouml Lite foothills in the Geraldine and Mi. IVcJ .Ruud Board districts have set tied the matter for themselves and do not want the TetmiKa Road Board district. their policy is not far-see-ing. If we understand the temper of i'arliamcal m regard to the creation of County Councils, we venture to assert that the passage of the proposed Litl no.\t session wnl not be live easy JiKtlUr which its sponsions anticipate. One "real reason yyhy- there should be one County front the hills to the sea is that that County should have its functions enlarged by the abolition of the present unsatisfactory River Boards. With a County along tile Iron L ranges and another he tween it and the sea, -the ’control of the rivers will never bo uniliod and simplified. The “rivir” question is the big '(Uestiim which sooner or Liter will claim the attention of Iho settlors along the Orari, Waihi and Tcmuktv rivers.

Discus-ion relative to the merging of '.Road Boards into a County Council has taken part in many parts of the Dominion, and in man-v cases the big county” idea has been approved of. I've had intended quoting the opinions expr. ssud in the “Bocal Govennnent Conference of 1912,” but we shall d for doing- so until some future occasion. Wo may stale, how-over, that these almost unanimously lead in the direction we have already indicated. ' '