He sees two major; problems causing the need for reform: public apathy and lack of constructive leadership at the State level. Public apathy allows the State to meddle with local government politically; this even causes the public to become more apathetic. This vicious circle, not finance, is the underlying problem for local government. Only by studying how all this happened, says Larcombe, is there any hope of breaking the nexus and establishing local government as a prestigious and respectable institution.

The writer devotes the first four chapters to a study of the Sydney Corporation for the period covered. Its history illustrates very clearly Larcombe’ s contention about the interference by State governments. Successive governments legislate, or attempt to legislate, so that one party or the other will gain control of the Sydney Council. While later in the book he declares that the intrusion of party politics into local government is inevitable and is not necessarily a bad thing, it is clear that the vicissitudes of the Sydney Council are due to the attempts of both Labor and non­Labor parties to control the Council and the interference of the State governments on behalf of one party or the other.

Gradually, in its periods in power, Labor extended the franchise and introduced compulsory voting, proportional representation, and popular election of mayors – all measures which they expected would secure party control of the Council. These gains were later eliminated or modified by the Askin Liberal Government.

The culmination of this political interference was the abolition of the Sydney Corporation in 1927 (for the second time in its history), and its replacement for three years by a commission. The Bavin National government accused the Labor dominated Council of patronage and corruption – with  some justification, for its faults were common, blatant and plainly obvious, often revealing a complete contempt for the citizens’ welfare. But Bavin was happy to have the chance to eliminate Labor control of the council; he did this effectively, and, in the new council, restored in 1930, non-Labor forces held sway for 18 years, until a Labor Government swung the pendulum the other way.

Larcombe argues that rationalisation of areas, particularly by amalgamation, is necessary for the reform of local government as the existing system encourages parochialism which sets up resistance to reform. Two of his chapters are devoted to attempts at amalgamation, one successful, the other not.

‘Greater Sydney’ so far has remained a dream even though the first attempts to introduce it date back to the end of last century. Larcombe doubts whether its realisation is now possible for ‘Successive governments have continued to create ad hoc bodies for municipal services or to filch through them important local functions, thereby adding to the chaos of metropolitan administrative and taxing authorities’.

Happier is the story of Greater Newcastle which came into existence in 1938. It was formed from the amalgamation of eleven municipalities and part of two shires. Greater Newcastle’s history has completely vindicated its proponents’ arguments and there is no evidence that anyone wishes to return to the old system. These two chapters should be compulsory reading for councillors in parts of Melbourne and Geelong.

The chapter dealing with county government reveals that this is not really a form of local government so much as a means of providing a particular facility or service to an area covering several municipalities. There are 52 county districts whose governing bodies are composed of delegates elected from the constituent councils. Most county councils have been created to provide electricity for their districts, but some deal with gas, water, sewerage, abattoirs, noxious plants or flood mitigation. The majority are single-purpose bodies. The big advantage Larcombe sees in them is that they keep the State Government out of areas that he considers are legitimate areas for local control.

A second tier of local government does not exist in New South Wales but attempts to create one date back to 1918. The idea of regional government has been strongly canvassed and has some affinities with the new state movement. The Regional Organization Act 1972 created nine regions each with its council of twenty-one members which may take all necessary action to encourage and stimulate the social and economic development (of the region) and ascertain and recommend the most appropriate means of achieving it. A wide charter without a great deal of power, but Larcombe sees the regional system as ‘ the salvation of local government’.

If regionalism is local government’s salvation, then its bane is ‘The ad hoc Invasion’. By this Larcombe means the filching of the major functions of local government by the State Government, giving them to an ad hoc authority, and finally placing them under State control. From this it can be seen that he considers the functions of local government to be much wider than others would agree. Victorians, at least, would not expect their councils to be providers of electricity, gas, fire brigades, water supply and housing, for example.

In his summing up, Larcombe says that the problems of local government are due to lack of innovation caused by excessive central control on the one hand, and conservative council resistance to restructuring on the other. If the Fraser government’s ‘New Federalism’ means the return of more functions to the States, then there should be a ‘new localism’ returning more power to local governments. If the defects he has outlined are not remedied as he suggests, Larcombe sees little hope for progress in local government or any increase in its prestige.

Overall, this is a very useful book, well researched and generally well written. The final chapter would, perhaps, have been more useful as an introduction. Its general approach would then have been illustrated by the particularities of the other chapters. As it stands some of the material in the early chapters only becomes fully comprehensible after reading the last chapter.

Two other criticisms might be made. One is the lack of maps – discussion of proposed changes in boundaries is rather meaningless without them, especially to interstate readers. The other is that, while he complains about public apathy towards local government, Larcombe does little to analyse the reasons for it.

This book should certainly be read by all councillors, for it both reveals the pitfalls to be avoided and recommends remedies if one has already fallen into them. It is to be hoped that the Municipal Associations of other States will follow the example of their counterparts in New South Wales and finance the writing and publication of similar books on their scenes.