LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11756, 21 July 1916, Page 7

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

THE NEED FOR REFORM. Local government is referred to in tho annual report of 'the Internal Affairs Department, presented to tho House this week. Tho report says: "It has been recognised for some years that the administrative cost of local government generally should bo reduced. The war has mado this a necessity. The finances of the Dominion cannot bo allowed to suffer by tho diversion of money to a channel that is already, in a manner of speaking, full to overflowing. At the same tinie_ the legitimate and necessary exfiansion of local government to meet ocal communal needs as they arise must bo provided for. Tho restriction of tho one, while providing the necessary powers for tho other, is a task that cannot bo accomplished at once, and yet its consummation can bo hastened by a study of the wholo question now, with a view to legislation when tho opportune timo arrives. " A casual study of tho local Acts of Parliament during the past few years, of the resolutions forwarded from the Municipal Conference, and of the difficulties that in actual confront them, revoals the undoubted fact that oven at present the needs of the four cities at least are not only of a different nature from those of other boroughs, but, further, that tho present legislation governing their activities—particularly tho Municipal Corporations. Act, 1908, which is the foundation of their existence—does not adequately endow them with powers. So long as the statute law of the Dominion does not distinguish them other than by conferring on them the at present empty title of ' city,' so long must their future progress be hampered. { " Requests arO constantly made for amendments of the Municipal Corporations and other Acts which, while at least desirable for' tho cities and larger boroughs, should not bo granted to smaller boroughs. Even -the machinery of tho local Bill as a means of widening their powers, can, I think, be proved to bo ultimately a hindrance rather than a help. The needs of each, moreovor, are so particularly and peculiarly individual that I doubt whether one Act dealing with the four of them would be sufficient. Each one of them needs special legislation, which in one case at least must make provision for k metropolitan areas beyond the city proper. "Hero again is a matter that does not admit of undue haste. Special study extending, may be, over somo years will be necessary, but xhis study cannot bo started too soon. l)ndue delay, on the other hand will operate against the consummation of any scheme, for tho suburban areas will in a few years be so heavily rated for purely local needs by small local bodies as, to make the necessary operations of tho metropolitan body an almost unbearable burden. In particular, as the cities and secondary centres of the Dominion extend, the want of a town-planning scheme becomes increasingly evident. The immediate suburbs and out-districts of to-day will in the not-distant futuro become parts of cities and towns, and provision should now bo made that in cutting up lands for sale as residential sites the necessities of drainage, water supply, school Bites, recreation reserves, and sites for State requirements should bo considered. ''The local government question generally, apart from the special case of the cities, has received considerable attention in the past. It has been the subject of Bills and a .conference of local bodies—that convened in 1912. Opinion is alivo to the necessity for new methods and the necessity for bettor provision being made for the amalgamation of existing local authorities, and, above all, for the codification and simplification of the entire law dealing with local government, which is now spread over &o many different Acts.