ROAD BOARDS SUBSIDY.

West Coast Times, Issue 1973, 26 January 1872, Page 3

ROAD BOARDS SUBSIDY.

(To the Editor.) Sib,— Before proceeding to offer some remarks as to the County receiving half the subsidy originally intended for Road Boards, I desire, in connection with that branch of the subject dealt with in my Just letter) to point out an invidious d's- | tinction made in the Payments to Provinces Act, between the Road Boards of Westlaii'l and those of other p-irtiona of the (Joloiiy. The Under Secretary, in his circular letter to the Chairman ot the Tolnia Road Board, calling "attention to I lie mode in which the grant to the Road Boards for the present year will be made j.viiilable," states that " when the voucher (for work completed) has been approved (by the County Chairman), and the amount placed in warrant, the County Treasurer will return you the voucher with a cheque signed by him, and by the County AudifoT. This cheque you will tl-cii have to sign and pay to tlie claimant, &c." The Act, however, only accords the privilege of countersigning cheques to the Chairmen of Road Boards outside of Westland, see Sections 17 and 25. The foimer section applies to the Provinces ; the latter is framed specially to meet the case of Westland, and runs thus: — ''In the ca r e of the County of Westland no mot ey shall be drawn from the said (l.oad Board) account except by cheque s igned by the County Treasurer, and countersigned by the Chairman of the County Council, and the Auditor for the County of Wtstland, or by the said Auditor and one member of the said Council appointed by the Council for the purpose." The rest of the section refers to the penalties for wilfully signing or countersigning cheques except in accordance with the provisions of the Act. '1 he case then, stands thus, according to the Act:— None of the Road Boards of the Colony are allowed to operate on tlie fund placed to their credit on account of subsidy; none are trusted to that extent ; the Provincial Uoad Boards have control over the fund to the extent that their chairmen are required to countersign cheques drawn upon it by the Provincial Trcasuier for amounts certified by the Provincial Auditor, and authorised by the Superintendent ; the County Road Boaids cannot participate in the operation of drawing the money, even to the extent of their chid men countersigning cheques. This is of a piece with the treatment all along dealt out to Westland since the period of the present Government's advent to office. People in other parts of the Colony are knaves, but we are greater knaves, and must be kept well screwed down, or moneys may be squandered in developing the resources of the Colony that are required to. enable mini-tors to flit about the world to afford mankind an opportunity of refreshing themselves with a sight of the great personages we breed in New Zealand. I entertain no hostile feeling towards Road Boards ; but if it be the case that their composition is such ns to need the degrading limitations and restrictions ta their functiona imposed by the Government, it is clear that this Cplony is not yet sufficiently advanced for such institutions. They should be (rusted to dial with their emu jsiTaiis, as Municipalities arc, or snutlcd clean out. lam one of those who regard Road Boai'ds as excellent institutions, notwithstanding the palpable fact that in some instances they have brcn CS" tablishcd before circumstances were ripe for their establishment. But the good that may be in them will certainly be crushed out by their being treated as suspects by the Central Government, as they arc treated at present. Sir, M Ido not wish to trespass too much upon your space, I will limit to a few words my remarks on what was to have been the chief topic of this letter ?.<?., the allotment to the Comity of half the Westland Road Boardf snbsiily. As one of the members of the Totara Rose! Board went so far as to say in a speech at a recent meeting of the Board that he had, in an interview with the County Chairman, charged that gentleman with appropriating £3000 of the Road Board's money, it may be nects«ary — it ought not to be — to point out that this allotment of a moiety of the subsidy, is not peculiar to Westland. Each of the Provinces is placed, in this respect, upon a precisely Miirilar footing to Westland ; and the reason for thus dividing the subsidy is as follows : — The Provinces and the County had framed and passed their estimates for the ensuing year upon the Capitation allow-

ance coming to them under the " Payments to Provinces Act, 1870," which Act contained a provision that it was to endure for five years. But the great manipulators of colonial finance introduced and passed a fresh Payments to Provinces Act last year, setting aside its predecessor; which new Act very materially reduced the Capitation allowance. It was to meet tlie case of this sudden and unexpected deprivation of revenue sustained by the Provinces and County, that the provision was introduced into the Act that, under specified conditions, half of the Road Board subsidy might be allotted to the County and Provincial Governments. This explanation will doubtless satisfy nil reasonable members of ltoad Boards that the focus to which their complaints and remonstrances on this subject should be directed, is the General, not the local Government. This division of the Road Board subsidy is in keeping with the general management of the finances of the Colony since the Hon. Julius Yogel hasbeen placed in possession of the keys of the Col mial coffers. Certainly, that gentleman and suite cannot travel for the benefit of the colony without incurring some expense. Three or four thousand pounds lor his journey to England and back was money well spent, although it was hard to be deprived of his presence during the six or seven months ef his absence. Hut what one may reasonably complain of is that he and Ids colleagues abstract from the Provinces and County the cost of their peregrinations, and then by a diabolical ingenuity in the mystification of finance make it appear that a robbery has been committed by the Provincial and County Governments, on the outlying districts ; or, as in the case of the division of the Road Board's sop. On the subject of taxing mining property, I may, if you permit me, address you in another letter. Yours, &c, SPURIUS MABLIUS. 1 Hokitika, Jan. 25, 1872.