Road Boards versus County Councils.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XIII, Issue 2385, 28 June 1895, Page 4

Road Boards versus County Councils.

Mr G. Heslop wrote to Mr Bennett, formerly Chairmaa of the Hawke's Bay County Council, and asked his views in regard to the merging of road boards. Mr Bennett replied as follows: Deab Heslop,—l have just received yours of yesterday, and in reply to your queries n Road Board merging. I can say from my own point of view, that in our County the merged districts are receiving more attention and better supervision by the County than they received under the Road Board. There were originally ten Road Boards in our district, and j of course the merging has doneaway with the cost of keeping more district boards in existence, which was a considerable saving to the ratepayers. Then again, the County receives about four times more subsidy from County rates than it did while Road Board rates were collected, so taking it altogether our County is certainly working better since Road Boards were merged, for all the expenses saved and the extra revenue received the roads are getting the benefit of it. My own opinion is that two governing bodies clash and that it should be either all Road Board, and no County, or all County and no Road Boards, and I favor counties doing the whole work for it only requires one staff, and a large staff is better worked than a number of smaller ones and less costly. There is only one objection, to merging and that is that road districts want as a rule more doing for them by the County than they would for themselves if they were not merged. I have written this in a hurry for you to receive in the time you wish.— Yours faithfully, John Bennett.