OVERHAUL NEEDED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 151, 29 June 1932, Page 9

OVERHAUL NEEDED

LOCAL BODY SYSTEM A COMMISSION URGED The passing of the affairs of th£ Thames borough into the hands of a commissioner appointed under a special Act of Parliament is a danger signal on the road of our present system of local government, writes the Associated Chambers of Commerce. This instance of collapse in local administration ought to be enough to show that the strain of national taxes and loud rates combined is proving too great for citizens, who cannot prop up much longer the present lavish system of local government. Already more than a year has been lost since the Prime Minister promised the appointment of a commission to invest!' gate the whole system of administration. without the action being taken. No one will doubt the good intentions of the Hon. A. Hamilton. Minister of Internal Affairs, who has been delegated to investigate the position, but. for an inquiry of this kind the work must necessarily be placed in the hands of an independent body of men. The Prime Minister must have realised this when he promised that a commission would bo appointed. A tribunal that is going to make recommendations that must be unpalatable to many if the proper reforms in our system of local government are going to be carried into effect, must be in a position to survey the field independently and mark out plainly the course that needs to be followed. Enough has been written already regarding the present state of overgovernment by local bodies iu this country, and the cost entailed to ratepayers and taxpayers. The Local Government Loans Board -is functioning as a very necessary check on. the recklessness of many local bodice so far as new loan commitments are concerned. and the seriousness of the pres ent position is being appreciated by certain local bodies which are not only economising in their own administration, but are making reductions in rates. This is laudable work, but even if it became universal it could not go as far as is necessary in the task of local government reform. What is needed is wholesale reorganisation of local bodies, the elimination of overlapping, a co ordination of functions and a revision of rating systems. The method of rating, method of franchise and method of distribution in connection with power boards, in relation to the operations of other local bodies, is one field of inquiry that needs to be dealt with, while an otlif* matter is the taxation of local bodies trading in competition with private concerns dealing in similar cowmoditio'- —a reform thnt is needed to correct, a fflnriiig injustice The urgency of the whole case justifies the immediate appointment, of s commission.