The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1932. LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 290, 7 December 1932, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1932. LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM.

for the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

It is amazing that the Prime Minister should have thought it desirable, or even possible, to rush through a Municipal Corporations Bill of 393 clauses in the last days of the session. Had the Government been really alive to the need for local government reform it would have appointed a Commission long ago, and the report might have been ready in time to give Parliament something to work on this session. As it is, postponement is inevitable, and, as we pointed out yesterday, the promised Commission has not even been set up. The Prime Minister says that when Parliament reassembles in January it will be occupied with "legislation arising out of the economic position.." Local government reform, however, is part of the problem of national economy, and it cannot be postponed indefinite!}'. So far most of our economy has been achieved in the field of national government, and local government, with all its multiplicities and duplications, remains untouched save for the economies that individual bodies have made.

In the meantime one may plead for a broad view of these questions. It cannot be denied that there is too much local government in New Zealand, and the need for economy and efficiency is such that if amalgamation and redistribution does not come from within, it will have to come from without. Since this paper has from time to time supported the rights of smaller local bodies it should not. be misunderstood when it says that these rights can be pushed too far. The argument from democracy that a district should enjoy autonomy as long as it wishes to, regardless of other considerations, is a dangerous one. Is a property owner allowed to block the progress of a public work just because he docs not wish to sell? He is not. Auckland suburban local bodies must realise that their number is excessive, and that if the Auckland area were laid out afresh in administrative districts, the boundaries would be very different. They will be wise to anticipate reform rather than have it forced upon them.