RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 197 



a suit of clothes, will act as chairman of a public works committee 

 of a town or village and direct complicated engineering construction 

 requiring many years of special training to understand even its general 

 details. With all its advantages, even the British system has not 

 been able to overcome this difficulty in small towns and rural dis- 

 tricts. Where new developments take place in Britain, as in mining 

 areas, there is a lack of efficiency, but that is not due to any defect 

 in the system, but rather to wrong administration. We cannot 

 entirely overcome this defect in Canada, any more than in Britain, 

 but we may do much by change of system to lessen its evils. 



This question of municipal government is intimately bound up 

 with that of the proper control of the development of land in all 

 organized districts. A municipality is a corporate body of citizens 

 looking after the social and industrial interests of the community. 

 The greater part of the expenditure by municipalities is incurred 

 directly or indirectly in connection with the development of real 

 estate — whether it be rural or urban in character. In view of the 

 enormous expenditure on municipal development it seems extra- 

 ordinary that there is so little effort made to avoid the waste which 

 results from lack of co-operation and from want of the knowledge 

 which can only be derived from wide experience. Small munici- 

 palities, with scattered populations and few resources, have not the 

 means to err ploy men of adequate skill and are compelled to undertake 

 highly technical work without knowledge of mistakes or successes 

 made by other municipalities. It is no excuse that these small and 

 poor municipalities have inadequate means to employ experts or 

 obtain knowledge ; in so far as this lack of means exists the need should 

 be met by the aid of the provincial governments. In view of the 

 great issues and large expenditure involved it is of urgent importance 

 to Canada that each province should have a well-organized municipal 

 department with expert advisers on all kinds of municipal allairs. 

 One of the special tasks of such a department would be to advise 

 and assist small municipalities. 



Cost of Local Government 



Some idea of the cost of municipal government in Canada a9 a 

 whole may be gathered from the figures which arc published by the 

 Ontario Bureau of Industries. In the Municipal Bulletin No. 10 

 of the Bureau it is shown that the total population in the towns, 

 villages and townships in Ontario in 1916 was 1,500,025, as against 

 1,019,027 in the cities, and that the former increased in three \ ears end- 

 ing 1910 by 21,834 as against 19,553 in the case of the latter. The 



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