councils which vary a good deal in efficiency, though most of them do
their special work fairly enough on accepted lines.

Though colonists join in complaining of the number of these no serious
attempt has, however, been yet made to amalgamate them, much less to
revive any form of Provincialism. Municipal enterprise has made few
attempts in New Zealand to follow, however humbly, in the wake of the
great urban councils of England and Scotland. Water companies indeed
are unknown, but most of the towns depend upon contractors for their
supplies of light; municipal fire insurance is only just being talked
of; recreation grounds are fairly plentiful, but are not by any means
always managed by the municipality of the place. None of the town
councils do anything for the education of the people, and but few
think of their entertainment. The rural county councils and road
boards concern themselves almost solely with road-making and
bridge-building. The control of hospitals and charitable aid, though
entirely a public function not left in any way to private bounty, is
entrusted to distinct boards. Indeed, the minute subdivision of local
administration has been carried to extreme lengths in New Zealand,
where the hundreds of petty local bodies, each with its functions,
officers, and circle of friends and enemies, are so many
stumbling-blocks to thorough--going amalgamation and rearrangement. In
New Zealand the English conditions are reversed; the municipal lags
far behind the central authority on the path of experiment. This is
no doubt due, at least in part, to the difference in the respective
franchises. The New Zealand ratepayers' franchise is more restricted
than that under which the English councils are elected.

A few words will be in place here about the continuance and outcome of
the Public Works policy. Sir Julius Vogel quitted the Colony in 1876,
but borrowing for public works did not cease. It has not yet ceased,
though it has slackened at times. In 1879 a commercial depression
overtook the Colony. The good prices of wool and wheat sank lower and
lower; the output of gold, too, had greatly gone down. There had been
far too much private borrowing to buy land or to set up or extend
commercial enterprises. The rates of interest had often been
exorbitant. Then there happened on a small scale what happened in
Victoria on a larger scale twelve years later. The boom burst amid
much suffering and repentance. In some districts