THE WAIKATO COUNTY COUNCIL.

Waikato Times, Volume XLII, Issue 3424, 9 June 1894, Page 9

THE WAIKATO COUNTY COUNCIL.

: TO THE editor, Sir,-I was disappointed on reading your, comments; on 'Waikato County Council matters that you did not touch upon the remarkable change of 1 . front that some members'of the Council at their, last meeting say. they find themselves compelled to take. .For years the .Waikato County Council has hung up the Act, so far as sttiking'a rate is concerned, contenting themselves with accepting contributions from the various road boards to provide funds for the hospital and charitable aid demand and for the maintenance of certainbridges, etc. A short consideration of surroundings to 'account for '■ this suddenrevelation will not be uninteresting. • Ovei the Rangiriri Outlying District the Council has levied a rate—the only one struck in the County.. This, with , the publicans' licensee, provided the funds for meeting the .expenditure,; the clerk's salary of £153. per annum' and the sundry travelling expenses of the various councillors to meet monthly- to do practically .the road board business-of the Rangiriri Outlying District. Many of your readers are aware an agitation in the, Rangiriri District: to. form themselves into a road district and. thus control their own expenditure, has been gjing on for years. The opposition on the part of. the Council and the obstacles thrown in the way of attaining their objoct are well known. , After repeated disappointments, one part of the district, has succeeded in its! object and the other wou'd probably soon be in the same 'position if under the impending change they continued their proceedings.; With this accomplished, it has become clear to the members of the Council that their occupation will begone —at any rate, to a very great extent, in so far as paying so much for clerical assistance or of holding the number of meeting. - ! of paid councillors; hence the sudden clearing of their intellects and the unfortunate admission, that, for I don't know how many, years, they have been acting illegally. If this irregu'arity—putting it mildly—had not been again and again" brought to their notice some excuse might exist, but ratepayers at this end. of the County remember well'enoueh the very decided protest made by Mr Forrest on this very question. ' Without further discussing the pitiable spectacle of the chairman proclaiming his own incapacity and the ail-too patent I reason ;for the < change, let me draw the attention of my fellow-ratepayers to the position. If the necessity of working the Act in its entirety could be got over in the past on account of the pliancy of the road boards, the same applies with equal cogency now, Let the'Rangiriri District form thoir boards and contribute with the other boards in the future; the Auditor-General will, no doubt, overlook the little irregularity as in the past, This will do- away practically with all the work of the County Council. A couple of meetings a year, with a clerk at £25 and no travelling allowances for councillors, will probably be found equal to all the workdemanded of the Council. Further,- the present members Vwere elected under the old order of things, 'and if this, change is imperative (which I doubt) then the ratepayers should certainly be placed in the position of being able to first discuss the attitude to be taken and then choose their representatives, and the: straightforward course for the present members of the Council to adopt would be to resign in a body so. that members could be elected charged with the duty of affirming or of opposing this most radical and, to my mind, uncallei-for change ori the part of the' Waikato County. Council.—l am, etc., • ■ Ratepayer. ■ Cambridge, June 7 th, 1804.