BILL CRITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 18

BILL CRITICS.

U)CAL BODY CONTROL. i RIGHTS OF GROWING TOWNS. i AMALGAMATION OF AKEAS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) PUKEKOHE, Friday. Following upon recent discussions by the I'nkekohe Borough Council with reference to the explanatory statement and copy of the Local Government Amalgamation Schemes Bill, the council has decided to advise the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. K. Parry, that it considers tlie bill requires modification in some directions and a more specific statement of its intentions and possibly additional provisions.

The council took the view that section 11 gave the .Minister excessive powers in determining the merits of schemes submitted to him or prepared under his direction, and in disposing of possible objections. While not wishing to question the fairmindedness of the Minister, the council considered that to ask him to adjudicate on the merits of his own scheme and on criticism offered against it was not desirable. Further, it was considered that where local bodies, with their intimate knowledge of the requirements of iheir districts were unable to reach agreement, the decision of the Minister was far less likely to give general satisfaction and to be" sound than would be the considered findings of a commission comprising three persons. In the opinion of the council in cases where a scheme was prepared by the Minister and probably also where local bodies were unable to reach a majority agreement, any dissenting representation should first be made a matter for determination In- commission prior to the Minister being called upon to exercise the functions required of him. The provision in the bill, placing on objecting local authorities or individuals the onus of proving that any proposed amalgamation would not reduce expend or would he prejudicial to the interests of a district was regarded by the council as likely to introduce a radical departure from recognised judicial procedure, and it was possible to imagine circumstances in which the local bodies might agrco on amalgamation which would definitely not diminish the expense nor be of local advantage. On the question of transferring the authority of town boards and other bodies in counties to countv councils, it was considered that if there was a rapidly growing township the bill should make it clear that boroughs or town hoards of a specific standard of population and area would not lose their identity and right of scU-COlltlol by merger in counties,