The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1907. A CHANGE WANTED.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13349, 27 July 1907, Page 4

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1907. A CHANGE WANTED.

We agree with tin' Premier that Mr Ma>,scyY. suggest ion for tin' a|Jp lJ ' ll,lmll '' ul ii, Public Works is not. Uns proper cure, for tho scandalous state of things which now exists in connection with parliamentary voUs for local requirements lil\C (Ju> const ruction of roadti and. bridges. ■ Mr Massry, howcvi'r, piobably made the suggestion in sheer despair of otherwise effecting an improvement, in . the annual faxes' which now goes on when tho Public Works Estimates iri being rattled .lluough the Ilou.sc. If cVciy application for a, grant, from Lho Public Works. Fund had t<j ba investigated by a, special committee as Mr Mai.uey suggested yesterday, thero would be, a guarantee that a, few member:* ai least in the House would know something about l-lio purpose, to which the money was going to be applied. Hut it is notorious that under .Ike present, system, thousand. 1 ! upon thousands of pounds of borrowed money are. voted away eveiy year by men who .have* not the, slightest, acquaintance with the locality to which they are authorising a, grant:. We may recall the famous local instance wjiich cropped up just before the last general election —tho vote of £2OO 1o a-road under the control of the Lev.els ; County Council. Even the members of the County Council -were - for a time ignorant of Ilia precise piece of road in respect to Nvhich Parliament had given them this assistance. What probability was there, therefore, 'that a, single member of the House of Representatives, with tho uolilary exception perhaps of the Minister who had placed tho vote upon ; lho Estimates, knew anything about,' the. desirability or otherwise of spending that £2OO. It was only a small matter, but it serves to illustrate tin; empty form solemnly observed by tho House in passing the Public Works Estimates-. Only tho member who applies for a grant knows what it is for,' and his, only chance of securing the vota ho, wauls is to show n tender indulgence for the similar 'demand:* of his fellow members. How judicious tluiiJ members are in their at- ' lacks- U])on the public chest may be. gathered from Sir Joseph Ward's vehement protest against the rapaciiy of the men who arc. sitting around him. "Ministers," li-.; said, ".should not be required to stand up day after day and resist from all side:; of tho House application for extraordinary expenditure." Ministers have themselves to blame. , They aro now in, danger of being devoured by tho Frankenstein which the Liberal Ministries of tho last decade and a, half deliberately created in order to .vecuro their hold upon venal constituencies. How- many electorates have judged their representatives by their suueess in plundering tho eoft'eiu of the >Slato, with the inevitable result, that members have placed the securing of votes from the Pub'.iu Works Fund in the forefront of their parliamentary duties, and the Premier, optimist as he- is, is compelled to protest Unit "no Government, unless it desired to ruin the colony, could meet anything like tho number of applications made for public works." What is to be tho remedy? Sir Joseph Ward suggests none beyond an exhortation to members; that they should be fair and reasonablo in their demands. He might as well appeal to tho -winds, for so long us the Public Works Estimates remain tho fairy godmother of the backblocks settler who wants a bridge or a road, and of the town resident who grants a new post office or ijonio such convenience, so long will tho Uovernment be squeezed by tho member who in hia turn is squeezed by his eon-

stifucuts. There is only one remedy, and that is for thu Government to divest themsslvts of the. responsibility. in which Sir Joseph seemed to glory yesterday. lloads and bridgtis mu.st cease to monopolise, the most important place in the work of Purli.fment, and must be. relegated to the local bodies which are in every way better litted to deal with them. The late Mr Seddon saw the cure, and admitted it in the final Budget, which lie. presented a couple of years ago. "Tho milleniwu may arrive some day," he said, " wheu public works (roads and bridges) will bo removed from the arena of Parliament,

and when the system of local government obtaining will obviate the necessity , for roads and bridges being referred to in Budgets or made the isubject of debate. in the House. I say tho sooner tin) better a change is made in that direction." Over ii (jnarlcr of a century before, the same remedy was advocated, and, as lie thought, supplied by Sir Julius Vogcl, whose first Budget after the abolition of the provinces contained the following pus- . . sag;:: —"1 dreaded doing away with the provinces because 1 thought we should have to iiit hcr« in judgment on local works, and that gradually we should lind creeping upon us the. demoralising system of mutual compromise called by the Americans ' log-rolling.' But we have avoided this difficulty. If our system be carried out. the name of any particular road or bridge—of any work, indeed, but- the buildings of the Government and the main railways of the colony--should rarely be heard in this House; at least not. for purpose!.; of supplication, though it might bo a.s the subject for congratulation at the triumph of tho form of local government that could give to tho country the works i; requhod without the necessity of parliamentary intervention." 'Jim Counties Act of 1876. from which Sir Julius A'ogel anticipated such happy results, has fallen far short of his expectations, but the gi-riii of true reform rests to-day as it did lliiity yean.; ago in the evolution of ;i, proper system of local government. When that comes, it will no longer be necessary for •the Colonial Treasurer to stand with a loaded revolver, holding back from the State chi'Sf a pack of .ravenous political, wolves.