The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1905. A BAD SYSTEM.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12844, 30 November 1905, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1905. A BAD SYSTEM.

, We confess that we cannot make very much out of the report we publish this : morning of the catechising to which Mr Hall-Jones" was subjected at the Levels on \ iuesday evening. The whole svstem of the administration of the roads*and the allocation of grants seems to be so hopelessly mixed, and jumbled that Mr Hail- ; Jones himsdf was at a loss to know what had been done, and who was responsible L either for what had actuallv been accomplished or for what had been left undone We have certainly no desire to blame the Minister of Public Worke for anvthing that occurred before he took charge of the , Roads Department or to accuse him of using the Public Works Fund for electioneering purposes. It is verv easv to make the latter charge, but as far as we are concerned we do not like these sweeping and indefinite accusations against tha honour of a .public man, and in any case, it is very easy for Mr Hall-Joou or any other member of the Government to quote instances m refutation of it. The charge certainly cannot be sustained as far as the Minister's own district is concerned. -If the Pnblic Works Fund is used to bribe the constituencies, it has j certainly not been used to bribe the Timaru constituency, or U it has, the Timaru constituency can be bought verv cheap, lhe only point that impresses itself clearlv upon us. so far as this district is concerned, js that the few votes which have been spent <-r allocate, have been obtained in a dssiinctly tojevtiwiaWe manner. Both in the case of the amounts seemed bv j * JS^ Mr McLaren V 3n<l *"jc jcceat snm . ot £2OO which was put on the Supple- ' mentary Estimate at the instance cjf Mr! i nngle. the Minister, oa his own admiswas guided by the individual advice of a member of She County Council. As far as we can see. it makes no ven- great difference whether the rot of the Council i knew what was being d*ne» as thev did when Mr McLaren made his application*. I or whether they were ignorant of the wire- I pulling. a.v was the case vbn-a Mr PriarJe ! sent his request to the Minister. ~ln both case* die principle was the same, and it ot». u, our mind, an utteriv vicrons | i nin inde'fnsible principle—that tne . Minis- ! J?- act npon the TOcommcadati'tn ! > t.r 't<vif- of a private individual, to n3.li- ' "c- "r.w he may admire the shrewd- ; \'"~ " , "'" ,3i * of that in- ' ! fjaS h'.Je-ano , .c»rr;rr strle «i ' ; 'r-.Ttv ,-* = 3ji to be.Mv.pt '„vl of; 3 _ v = n w jjj c ], s, s | aWi "' r " <■■*» pfiVtcd is the war advo- : cate 1 l.y- ;3ie Premier in his last Financial St»»cn-jc=» she removal of roads and* hruls** finni the arena of Parliament and j ♦jcr of their control by JocaT bodies. That is the system advocated bv the '< Oppr.Mnon in general and bv Mr Rollcston lit partarniar. The Government's svstem is she svstem which gives the tangled resuits.- hy our rejwrt of the meeting at the levels. One of the priawv necessities of that system seems to Ue k. good stock of pigeon-holes, where applications forwarded by local bodies can be stowed away and forgotten for years. Mr' Half-Jones admitted that the original anplication from the Levels Countv Council was sent up in Mav. 1933. and* he know nothing about it till last Monday. The j.' Department must be cither in a chaotic |or in a. somnolent condition. We may as 1 well put the details of that application on j irecord here. The application was printed I f on one sheet and was divided into two parts I fas follows : i

LIST 1. "Protective works iCave) 350 Protective works ißaindiffl ......... Main Xortii Road (between Frew:.rv, ing Works HiU and Point R<»d) 560 Otipua Road (between Saltwater Cre*4c and Salisbury) 700 Totnra Road (between Canmngham's and Millar's) 200 Main South Road (between Engs^ down and Pareora) 240 •South Read (betw>eea Saltwater Creek and town boundary) 250 t a •". -: fi2500 i.IJsl 2 (Roads intersecting Levels Estate). _ £ Howell's RncV E-ad 4W Tycho Flat Road *"" qqq Road. Papafca Jo Cliffs ... <3OO Papafca to Tycho Flat 500; German Flat Road .' 200 Total £1950] Grand Total £4250List 1 contains the applications to wbich no attention has ever been paid bv the' Government, and which .Mr Hall-Jones savs he never saw or heard about until last Monday. Those marked with an asterisk i have, since the application was made in] May, 1905, been completed out of county

] fui.ds. List. 2 contains lh<> application* which. 35 far as we can male «ut. ireie referred to Mr numpbricis, Comnuf-woncr I «»! Crown LiTjdp is Cani-wbury. A« both- | lists were "pruned on toe *«ur.s cbset. «♦ I 'iTe at. a ]r,t ;s j„ understand bow the 1 «*'..• ".ur ( fi «•]»']« ths fit*! was ] app.inwly ]ast for -over two rear*. Mr dilemma by pleading a double excame—* diangc «f Minjaitr* an July, 1903, «nd * yy?i«n «f divided control over roads. The whole yystctn seem* to tts horribly inefficient and unsatisfactory both to tie Jocai body and to the settlers affected. It wauls remedying, and rtmedving quicklr. The *eltk'r.s' holding* are loadVd to provide road*, but tbey do not get the roads tbey pay for. We are not sorry Ibis inrid<*)t has cropped up in South Canteiburv. because » show* the people heic what settler* in less favoured parts of the cok.nv—Tarannljj and elsewhm—hav* I<> put up -wjtk They can now appreciate the grim «:ircasm of a paragraph in the report, -of that expensive Land Commission whose recommendations have been so studiouslv ignored by the Government. "Many 'settlers," the report says, '"have laboured under the impression that the necessary corollary to loading was roads." The discussion at the Levels shows how mistaken such, a simple belief has been. Are the people going to perpetuate this ridiculous system? After they have been loaded " to -such an extent that there ought to be £IB,OOO to spend on roads, are ther goingto put up with their application* being stowed away for orer two years, and then accept an assurance that "von are going to get it, boys"? Or will they support a candidate who will put: the ' conftol of these funds in the hands of men who are always accessible and whos? memories can easily be jogged when the pigeon-Soles nave buried applications long enough?'