ROAD BOARDS SUBSIDY.

West Coast Times, Issue 1971, 24 January 1872, Page 2

ROAD BOARDS SUBSIDY.

{To the Editor.) Sir, — As a Road Boards Conference is promised to be held shortly, and as the members of those Eoards— -judging from newspaper repoits of their proceedings—seem to be somewhat in a fog as to the General Government subsidy — which will doubtless be one of the chief topics i-f discussion at the Conference — I think it may be useful if an attempt is made to throw some little light on that subject. It is essential to remember tint the subsidy does not come out of revenue, but out of money borrowed expres-ly for the prosecution of new public works. If the subsidy were paid out of ordinary revenue, it would be but equitable that the Boards should be at liberty to employ it, if they thought proper, in meeting their ordinary expenditure ; but as the money is borrowed expressly to be employed in the construction of new public works, it is only proper that certain precautions should be adopted to ensure its being so spent. These need not, however, have taken the objectionable form in which we find them. I shall say nothing here as to the wisdom or oth rwise of subsidising Road Boards out of b/jrrqwed money. The legislature has sanc r tioned it, and that is enough for me at present. Now, the Road Boards of Westlund, as far as I can make out, base their dissatisfaction with regard to the subsidy chiefly on two grounds, viz., the vexatious and humiliating mode in which the grant will be made available ; and the allocation to the County Government of one half of the sum originally intended for the County Road Boards. On the first ground— the mode in which the grant is to be made available— l think the Road Boards of the Colony have ample cause of complaint; but it mu^t not be forgotten that the mode is not assignable to the caprice of the County Government, but is laid down in the "Payments to Provinces Act 1871," and therefore until the Ist of July next, when the Act cgaseq to be in operation, must be adhered to. If. is well that dplegates to th£ Road Boards Confereq.ce shquld bear this fact in mind. At the same time, I heartily sympathise with the Road Boards in their sense of the indignity which the Legislature has put upon them, in the mode presgribed fflr rendering the grants available, It is directly equivalent io telling these bodies that they en not be tru-ted with a few hundred pounds. Not a shilling is to be paid over to the Boards, but the grants are to be placed to an account which can only be operated apon by the County Chairman, County Auditor, and County Treasurer, who are authorised to issue cheques, drawn upon the Road Board Fund "for work performed, or for tools or material pnrchased." Why is not the grant to which ,each Board may be entitled paid over to it, and disbursed by it without such meddlesome, and offensive intervention ? It can only be because the Boards are mis-trusted. If mis-trusted,

why this mockery of subsidising them ? > Why are they allowed to exist, if they cannot be trusted with the handling of a few hundreds of the many thousands of pounds contributed to the revenue of the Colony by the districts which they represent ? True, the subsidy comes out of the loan. More is the pity ! But the loan will have to be paid, and the Road Districts will have to bear their share of the taxation necessary to pay it. The Boards should be either knocked on the head, or treated as bodies possessing an average amount of common honesty. This confiding Colony entrusts with the manipulation of millions, a Government, which refuses to trust Road Boards to the extent of a few paltry pounds. Verily, it seemeth that thehonesty of the Colony is concentrated in high places. It will be for the Conference to discuss whether the Road Boards should avail themselves of the subsidy under the present degrading conditions. If it be decided to accept the grant doled out in so offensive a manner, the Boards will have no reason to complain that the General Government, in their Payment to Provinces Act, dealt with them as bodies in whom meanness and cupidity override every manly or honest sentiment. If the Boards desire to occupy the position of cringing dependants upon a Government that, backed by a slavish majority, is taxing the Colony to death, they will accept the dole with its annexed humiliations in all meekness; bat if they have any spark of soul in them at all, they will spurn it while clogged with conditions that demean and insult the recipients. On the subject of the allotment to the Provinces and County, of half the intended subsidy to Road Boards., I will address you in a future letter. Yours, &c, SPURIUS MABLIUS. Hokitika, January 23, 1872.