The Timaru Herald MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1907. GOVERNMENT GRANTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13463, 9 December 1907, Page 4

The Timaru Herald MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1907. GOVERNMENT GRANTS.

As we suspected, tliiv Hon. J. Ansley wn« wide of the iniiirk when ho tokl out" reporter tho other day that the.' Levels County Council -hud nob applied for: uny Government grants,;, and had ihuref<;re.,uot'liing to complain about in the fact that it wnii ignoMxl ifv the distribution of the State's imoney under the Public Works Estimate* and Supplementary Estimates. Mr Orbell makes his jown reply to/tjiitt assCTtion in the intrrview which wo publish to-day, and,there is no need! Ao elaborate lxisi remarks. Briefly the position is that •'■the Levels County Council, ■'after conferring with Mr Hall-Jones and acting on life, directions,, sent a, list ■of their requirements 'to the -Roads Department, Mr Hall-Jones; then left for England, -.'«i«l apparently neither Mr Anstey; imr; Mr Flalman .heard of this list, \witli .tho. result of which ■ Mr Orbell ; ■complained-'-'■ afc the •last 'meeting of his Council—that- whilo the Waimatc County got everything 'it wiinted, the- ■ Levels got nothing..', I?re.would jiav-o been, if the Levels list .had come to tho knowledge of either of Mr Hall-Jones's 1 deputies. Our point, however,,, in the whole discus doiv has been just' ..what Mr, Orbell. states it'''to'., haye baen—a • condle-nnui.tion of . I:ha vicious system of Government grants .which' turns local bodies into packs of beggars. The -systejirf would 1 be had' enough' if tho applications' which flow in' from every part of the; colony were .weeded out by the Departmentalengineers who .ought vlo be; the- meet capable -and- most impartial adyijei's available to tho iMinister. But it ■ i.s, .si ; hundred .limes woise' when applications, are ..'smothered unless they have a memlwr to . drag, tho\u /into prominence! and secure attention for ' at: 1 east a proper-' lion of ' them. Tho object of such a system is obvious 'to the meanest inlelli- ■ gen ce, but nobody can question its efficacy in achieving' the purpose, which ids ad-ministraUtfi-B intend it, tb serve, vlt liatf degraded! the politics of ' bigger countries than New Zealand, iind. wherever i't haS. exerted its noxious influence there has been only one euro for, it. France and! Italy ..have both experienced' its malevolent effects, and M. daLaveleye, one of tluv greatest of French authorities, writes of it in the following tearajS;:-—"Piiblic 'works give, rise to a new species of political corruption, whence results an evil use of -

the revenues of (ho Stale. To secure' the votes of this district or that locality, it is given n wharf, it lailroad, a church nv a canal. Other districts claim in (heir turn, and thus works of which there is very little need absorb en»ruM>UH PUJttx, and (he budget is marked for regular contributions. The Government makers public works, distributed as favouis, an almost irresistible means of influence m electoral contests. This is to be seen in nil countries where tLc ,rule,of Parliament is found! combined with a centralised administration." M. Ijavelcyo studied tho disease in Italy and 1 France, but his diagnosis exactly -tits thu malady in NewZealand, and his prescription is tho prescription we Law so often advocated in (be ,colony—an • extension of "lo .selfgovernment local" which will delegate to h.cal control all purely local woiks, and the provision of ;i financial system which will frco ithip local bodies from < the nevesbity of touting for grants through their paiiiamentuiy representatives.