Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Quarter of A Century.] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1898. IS REFORM NECESSARY?

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 6113, 15 December 1898, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Quarter of A Century.] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1898. IS REFORM NECESSARY?

♦ M-Asmi'ios'lias cut the ropo by which it wns anchored to a £30,000 loan utAuckhnid, and tlio Council is once moi'O adrift on the wide, wide sou, without knowing which way to steer and waiting for a favorable breeze lo blow it into some port. We are no nearer our water and drainage works than wo wero a year ago, although we havo spent £SOO of ratepayers' mouey, and our only return for it appears to bo tlio discovery of the general iiicompetenco of our municipal authorities to carry out such an undertaking on effective business lilies'. Once more wo get a proof that our city fathers are Penelopes, who unravel as fast as they weave, We are not going to blame the

ward Councillors for the untownrd results of our public works administration; the very fact that in a small placo like this they are representatives of ward divisions rather than of tlio town as a whole limits I heir powers of usefulness. The outer ward for example holds the balanco of power in the Council and as things now are, it is in a position lo slop municipul progress. This is what has happened in the pnst, is happening now, and may happen in Ihe future, and is it not time to look the ditliculty in the face and try and devise some remedy to meet it ? Is Masterton to bo always going one step forward and two backward in its municipal career ? Councillors gravely talk now of of getting £20,000 from the Government, but thoy ought to have made certain of this harbour of refuge before deserting their Auckland friends, 'We are not at all sanguine about Government money being available, or if it be obtainable whether the Department will not impose terms and conditions which will-virtually strangle the loan. Again, if the lending bureau deems the security insiiOicieut there is -virtually an end of the mailer. The loan has been hawked about 100 much and it won't stand much more wear and tear, Meanwhile the outer ward, which doesn't want il at all, is jubil'tut, The adjournment of Council meetings and the postponement of public works are'the special functions of the outer ward.

There are Iwo remedies; tlio one is to obtain legislative sanction to reducing the area of the Borough, and lore-model the Municipality,so that farms and fanners are left out of llio civic boundaries; the other is to abolish Iho present ward divisions and make a fresh start with a general election, As regards the first, there would be somo difficulty in obtaining Ihe necessary consent of Parliament, but the divorce of the town and country now within the present Borough bounduries would be popular on both sides. The town does not want farmers within its borders, aud the farmers would prefer being transferred lo the Road Board. With the outer ward detached and Lansdowne included, if expedient, the town would become progressive.

The other remedy is simply to abolish the existing wards und work the town as a whole, This would involve the retirement of all the present ward Councillors mid the election of a now batch as representatives of the entire Borough. It is probable that some of the present Councillors would bo re-elected, but even if new men altogether were returned to the horseshoe table there would bo uo practical inconvenience, as the permanent officers of tlio Borough would carry on all business until such time as the new Councillors wero able to do duty, Tbore would, however, be some radical changes, some new blood comiug to the front with the avowed intention either of doing something or of doing nothing, If a luuuicipal reform league

wero constituted, il uould, without much difficulty, reduce tlio urea of ( llio borough or abolish nil wards, mid by a general election praclicnlly I return 11 now Uounuil. It is about ( timo that thu business men in tlio community faced allerniitivos of < this kind and combined to carry out ' Hoiiio change wtiicli would put an ' end to Hie deadlock which now exists, Muslorton is just us far advanced 10-dny, will: respect to water and ' drainage, as it was twolvo months' ago, and the inonov spent in initialing Hie project is apparently wasted. What sane man would spend 1000 over the initiation of a great undertaking, and then draw back from it or bring illoii.standstill, Ufcourso it will hucontended that the wulerand drainage loan is neither killed nor brought lo n standstill but it must bo admitted (hut it has got into a sortof muddle from which extrication is highly improbable, Musterton is not Iho only town in the colony whoro llio administration is ineffective; other and more important con Ires are quite as bud and we iiro not sure that Wellington itself is much belter, Jiut in all towns, where year after year public improvements lag and public business drifts, there is but ono remedy and that is a change of men. It is a mistake to suppose that any ono sot of men iiro indispensable to a municipality, but sometimes they themselves think so, and it becomes an article of faith that they are llio only competent persons lo manage its affairs. Illusions of (his kind require to bo dispelled, and n change of men often ncls like a charm, by imparting new vigour and ' enterprise tnto en administration. This remedy is not only applicable lo Masterton, but to half the municipalities of Now Zealand. In Maslerton it is specially required lo end ' tlio waul of harmony which arises from our inconvenient ward divisions.

We do not blamo the country party in the Borough because it blocks improvements and keeps down rates. If we were farming in nn outlying part of Masterton wo should' take llio same view. But wo do blame tlio townspeople, who roquire water mid drainage, if Ibey havo not spirit enough to got the upper hand of their country friends and carry on all necessary improvements in spite of their opposition. If the town would bonelit by abolishing tlio ward divisions and electing n now Council, Iho town ought to do all this and Iho country party ought to opposo the movement. Eitbor the town should move on or stop dead. This spending of large sums of money to secure progress and then not obtaining it, benelils neither town nor country burgesses. What is wanted is a tug of war—pull baker, pull devil—between town and country and lei tlio sido which wins rule the Borough, The only other alternative is re-constructing the Borough on new lines which would exclude farms and, if desired, include kiisdowiie.