STRANGLING LOCAL WORKS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2766, 22 March 1910, Page 5

STRANGLING LOCAL WORKS.

THE CURSE OF RED TARE

(By “Baekblocks.”)

Every year during the session of Parliament there is a. scramble from one end of New Zealand to the other for road' grants, and the local papers take the earliest opportunity of acquainting the settlers in the various districts with the amounts on the Estimates for their localities. These grants are given or/ no particular principle, and their allocation constantly gives the opponents of the Government a handle for making charges of corruption. There may be, and as a fact there generally is, very little grounds for these charges, but as long as the doling out of monetary assistance on no principle except the will of The Ministers remains the prerogative of the Government, these charges will continually be 1 made, and for the sake of the good name of our political system it would be better if the system of grants to local bodies could be entirely abolished and their place taken by loans at cheap rates of interest or subsidies based on some: sliding scale in which'area rateable value and present development of district should' form factors.

However, the present system is with us, and so it is of the greatest consequence that it should he administered lor the benefit of the people, and here I assert, without any fear of contradiction, that it is mot. On the contrary, the administration appears to be observed with a miserable, stupid, fatuous system of red tape, leading to infinite' inconvenience and delays to the local bodies entrusted with the expenditure of these- grants. Let- me explain how things are run now. The monies are voted for expenditure about September, or, at any rate, about the end of the session. To the ordinary plain ma.n it would appear that the next step would be to spend the monies on the works -for which they were voted, and the ordinary plain man has been frequently known to heap unmerited opprobrium on the local body because it will not go on spending votes which that simple- person, having seen in the papers a list of “grants for local works,” thinks it has a perfect right to do at once. But no! What happens is tills: About the beginning of February a list is sent to a County Council of the grants which it is proposed to entrust to that Council for expenditure, and with this list is enclosed a memorandum of conditions. The Council must apply through the district engineer for authority to expend each, grant, and must forward with the application drawings and specifications in duplicate. If the district engineer approves of what is proposed, lie sends the specifications.to Wellington, wit]) his recommendations, and in due time authority is forwarded to the local body to go on with the work. Now see the results : We will say the local body gets a list of ten grants. These will be for small sums, not averaging perhaps more than £2OO, and to be expended in various places scattered all over the county, an area it may be of fifteen hundred square miles. It naturally takes a considerable time to get to these various places, lay off the work, which being generally of an inexpensive character entails an amountof labor very large in proportion to the proposed expenditure—this., work of laying out a four-feet bridle track would be nearly the same as for a» thirty-feet metalled road—and prepare plans and specifications in duplicate. But the office T’s to local bodies have a number of claims pressing for attention as well as the expending of grants, and naturally cannot devote their whole time to these grants alone. It follows that very often months elapse before the local body -get actual authority to proceed' with the work. Imagine the position of a county engineer who is faced with- the problem of expending grants of £l5O each at Nuhaka, Tiniroto, Waimata-, and Tologa Bay. He has considerable works and expenditure under his charge in other parts of the district, and, of course, lie canpot suddenly abandon all of them for the purpose of spending £l5O at Tologa Bay or at any of the other places. Accordingly he has to arrange to- lay off the work under the Tologa Bay grant when he is laying off other work in that quarter, and does the same for each o.f the otner places-. If he did otherwise the cost; of expending these small grants would' be excessive; accordingly lie takes the first convenient opportunity to visit Tologa Bay. Such an opportunity perhaps does not arise for a fortnight'. -After this specifications have to he prepared and' forwarded in duplicate, and in the course of time an authority may be received to go on with the work. Thus fortified l tenders are called (this could not be done hitherto), and some time must be- given contractors-to see the ground and make up their estimates, and so by good luck perhaps this Tologa. job is lot by the end of March, but what about Tiniroto and Nuhaka and Waimata? The. same process is necessary for them, and so winter arrives, and work is suspended until spring. Now what- would hnpjien if local bodies were empowered to expend these grants without the harrassing restrictions at present attached to them. The engineer would visit Tologa Bay, and while on the ground lie would call for tenders —to be in next council meeting —and work could proceed immediately after the meeting. If the- Tiniroto or the Waimata jobs were on flat formation, and a repair party with a road machine were working in the neighborhood, he could wire to the foreman to proceed at- once with these, as a eompe. tent foreman would require no specification for such work. He would visit Null aka- first chance, and while on the ground' call for tenders for next council meeting, and that- work could be proceeded' with. Much time and correspondence would be saved, and there would be some- chance- of getting the work done in fine weather instead of having it dragged out through the winter or nut off till spring. An absolutely free hand should be given to local bodies and 1 their officers to take advantage of the seasons and the most advantageous condition for getting their work done.

Now, wliy in all common sense cannot the Government, immediately the session is ended, authorise councils to proceed with the construction of works provided for in the Appropriation.’ Shouldn’t a. county council know as much about a road' at Parikanapa as some official in Wellington, for, mind you, not even the district engineer can approve of expenditure now (this used to be so hitherto) ; he now recommends Wellington to approve. Is there some, all-seeing ability in Wellington that only UmlCr-Secretaries resident there can judge of the class of bridle, track required! to give accessYo Mangatapere? or is it really that Under-Secretaries have some insane hankering to reserve all power and prerogative in their own hands, including the sole right to teach an old woman to suck eggs? Are. tne Government frightened- to trust tie people with their own, or do they wish them to remain a, lot of TTnder-Secie. tary-ridden slaves? It is for the-peo-ple' to say. If they are prepared to

wade in the mud until spring, to see their necessary public works delayed by harrassing restrictions devised by some fatuous Wellington official, very good ; it is their business. If they wish their works to be proceeded with at a decent speed, to have their tracks formed, to rid themselves of the demon of red tap© now strangling all efforts for progress, they should rise up and demand the removal of the -restrictions or the official.