CENTRALISATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 194, 18 August 1931, Page 6

CENTRALISATION.

The composition of the local meeting held yesterday to discuss the Building Construction Bill is proof enough that the criticism it has provoked is well grounded. The City Council, the Builders' Association, the Institute of Architects, the Society of Civil Engineers, were represented. The presence of representatives of the architects' governing body was by itself quite sufficient to show that opposition to the Bill does not spring from a desire to take earthquake risks, for even before the Murchison earthquake the architects, with such visitations in mind, were pressing the Government to make building regulations more stringent. What is objected to now is unwarranted interference with local control and centralisation of authority in Wellington. If the Bill became law there would be a great accession of power to the already too-powerful Public Works Department. And this is not the only measure that threatens to increase centralisation. Such would be the effect of the Transport Bill and the Electricians Bill. This trend in government must be resisted, and apparently the community has always to be prepared to meet this kind of attack on its liberties. Local bodies, engineers and architects are wise in making arrangements to put their case against the Building Construction Bill before Parliament. In the fight against centralisation nothing should be left to chance.