MANY REMITS PASSED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 138, 23 March 1935, Page 3

MANY REMITS PASSED.

municipal association. (Special to the “Guardian.”) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The twenty-fifth annual conference of the Municipal Association or New Zealand was concluded yesterday, when over twenty remits dealing with matters ranging from unemployment and motor taxation to matters ol auministration were dealt with. At Thursday’s session nearly seventy remits were considered, a steady pace being maintained by the president, the Mayor (Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P.) m putting through the business. It was decided to hold the next conference at Napier. The election of officers resulted:— President, Mr C. O. Morse, Mayor of Napier? vice-presidents, the Mayors ot Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Masterton; additional members of the executive committee, the Mayors of Timaru, Palmerston North, Ashburton, Hawera, New Brighton, and Rotorua, the chairmen of the Papatoetoe and Havelock North Town Boards, and Mr J. A. C. Allum, representing the Transport Boards, auditor. Remits carried were as follows : “That the Government be asked to pass legislation so that the Impounding Act, 1908, shall bind the Crown.” “That Section 368 (d) of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1933, shall be amended so as to allow of a substantial increase in] th,e fees chargeable for the issue of hawkers’ and pedlars’ licenses.” It was submitted that, not only were housewives annoyed, and sometimes insulted, by unlicensed hawkers, but business people in small towns were often subject to losses of trade through the operation of licensed and unlicensed hawkers. For the payment of an annual fee not exceeding £1 a hawker was at present able to sell goods for a period of one year, in direct competition with shopkeepers who paid rent, rates, lighting costs, and wages, as well as rates upon their private- house. This, it was submitted, was grossly unfair. This remit, presented by the Borough Council, was carried by 36 votes to 33.

“That Section 364 of the Municipal Corporations Act should be amended to give power to the local authority to frame by-laws prohibiting hawkers from standing or carrying on their business in defined streets or portions of streets.”

“That the incoming executive bring down a report for the more effective management and control of the affairs of this association, and its report be circulated to the contributing local bodies as soon as possible.” A remit suggesting that the decision as to whether pictures should be shown on Good Friday and Christmas Day should be regulated by statute, was heavily defeated.

A suggestion that the conference should be held in some month other than March was referred to the incoming executive for consideration.