CIVIC PARLIAMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 250, 21 October 1924, Page 7

CIVIC PARLIAMENT.

SOME AUCKLAND REMITS. AUCTIONEERS' LICENSES. IMPORTANT AMENDMENTS URGED. Tlie annual conference of the Municipal Association of New Zealand will open at 10 o'clock next Thursday morning in the Auckland City Council Chamber. About SO delegates are expected to attend the conference, representative of city and borough councils and town boards throughout the Dominion. The Mayor of Wellington, Mr. R. A. Wright, is president of the association, but as his parliamentary duties will probably preclude him from attending, one of the vice-presidents, who are the Mayors of Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Nelson, will most likely 'be elected to the chair. The most interesting of the new remits on the order paper have already been published in the "Star," but the supplementary order paper will contain a considerable additional number, several of which are from the Auckland City Council. Among these Auckland remits is one whicli has been before previous conferences, urging the restoration or enactment of a regulation gazetted in November, 1915, directing the town clerk to omit persons enrolled on a residential qualification who have not voted at the last general election. Another Auckland remit urges that the definition of street, under section 171 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 'be amended so ns to include new public highways laid down by private owners with the sanction of the council. At present the only new streets recognised under the Act are those laid down by the Council itself, all streets dedicated by -private owners under the Public Works Act, and otherwise being in 'boroughs private, streets only. A further remit dealing with streets suggests an amendment to the section of the Act which reads as follows: — "Tlie Council shall exercise the power to make any new street or divert or widen or diminish the width of, or stop any existing street, or to alter the name of a street, only 'by special order in that behalf." It is contended by the Auckland Council that this should be amended so that it applies only to cases where the Council is exercising compulsory powers so far as making a new street or diverting or widening an existing street is concerned. It is pointed out that in many cases alterations are made, to street alignments, and that streets are more or less widened by arrangement with adjoining owners, either on a basis of no monetary consideration or of a merely nominal one. It is now suggested by the District Land Registrar at Auckland that he will refuse to register any dedication in such a case without proof of the passing of a special order by the Council under section 190, in which event much needless expense, delay and inconvenience ■would he caused without any corresponding advantage. x An important Auckland remit deals with auctioneers' liceiiscs. The follpwing is the text of this remit:— (a) That the Auctioneers Act, 1008, be amended so that the discretionary power vested in the local authority by section 5 of the Act in respect of granting a license to an applicant shall apply also in respect of the person named in the application who it is intended will conduct auction sales on behalf of the applicant. (b) That the Auctioneers Amendment Act, 1010, section 2 (5), be amended to vest in the local authority similar discretionary power when application isi made for the appointment of a substitute. (c) That the Auctioneers Act, IDOS, be amended to provide that no person shall be granted an auctioneer's license, or .be allowed to conduct auction sales on behalf of the holder of an auctioneer's license, or be eligible to receive any transfer of an auctioneer's license, unless his application is recommended iby the chief officer of police in the district within which, liis place of ■business is situated. _ » The Council points out that similar requirements are embodied in the Second Hand Dealers' Act, 100 S.