The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1912. EDITORIAL COMMENT.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 86, 16 February 1912, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1912. EDITORIAL COMMENT.

If any proof were needed, that it is a wise course for local bodies to preserve the right to the use of public ulilities, for the benefit of the public, it can be found in the statement of the chairman of directors of the Auckland Tramway Company. It appears from this statement that the company started in 1902 with 45 cars and a 900 kilowatt generating plant. This was thought at the time to be an extravagant provision for the requirements of a population of 70,000. At the present time the company has a plant producing 5000 kilowatts, and even this is not large enough. In 1907, after the company had greatly extended its operations, it had 71 cars; They will very shortly have 136, an increase of about 90 per cent. But the most marked increase is in the number of passengers carried. In iqog the cars carried twenty-two and a half millions of passengers. They are- now carrying at the

rate of thirty-three and threequarter millions annually, an increase of 50 per cent. The wages paid to the employees have also shown a very considerable increase. In 1907 £9OO was paid weekly ; the employees now receive something like £2OOO for the same period, and the number of men engaged has risen from 370 to 650. A review of the position shows that passengers had increased by 50 per cent, wages by over 100 per cent, and the number of employees by 75 per cent.

THIS is undoubtedly a fine record, and shows what may be done by private • enterprise, coupled with good business management and a growing population. But there is no reason why, even with smaller communities, that public services, such as water, lighting, trams, etc., cannot be carried on with great benefit to the people and profit to the authorities. The main question is one of good management. Given that from the start, these things generally turn out successfully, but where you get frequent changes of those in authority and corresponding changes in those who serve, then public money is often wasted. There is a good deal to be said in favour of the American system; which is now coming, largely into vogue in the cities of the States, of appointing two or three men to the charge of certain departments, such as streets, water, lighting, drainage, etc., etc. These men have absolute power in their own department, and are responsible to the citizens who place them in power. They must make a success of their departments, or give up their office. In a small town it would be worth trying to place one of the councillors in charge of each department. Let him have*complete authority, with a specified sum of money to spend, and in all probability we should get much better results than are shown at present.

THE difficulty at present seems to be, in most of our small towns at all events, that too much is expected of our town councillors. They are called away from their own work to attend to this and that matter, to listen to this and the other person expound their views on water or some other nonintoxicating subject, all of which takes them away from their own callings. If one man had only one department to look after, it would mean a very considerable saving in time, and if the man were at all capable and fit for his position, much better results would be obtained than at present. And further it would be much more satisfactory to the citizens in the case of one man, say, being responsible for street crossings. Supposing he neglects his work and fails to get the crossings put in, it would be very much easier to bring the solitary individual to judgment, and give him a taste of tar and feathers, than it would be to serve the same treatment to a larger body of men, who had likewise neglected their duties. In this age of improvement, it is surprising that we still have to be served or neglected as the case may be, by those whose entire time is taken up, looking after their own work. It would surely be easy to devise a better system than this.