LOCAL BODY AMALGAMATION,

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 251, 22 October 1937, Page 6

LOCAL BODY AMALGAMATION,

I>o the ratepayers of Mount Albert, Mount E4en and Mount Roskill, and perhaps One Tree Hill, realise that unless they are up and doing they may be forced into the city against their will by a high-handed despotic bit of legislation under the camouflage of economy? As a matter of fact, we outside ratepayers have everything to lose and nothing to gain by being swallowed up by the city. As a Mount Albert ratepayer, I say our rates would go up and we would have* to submit to a more of the inspector pest and red tape which is gradually getting a stranglehold on the people of this country. During the past few years we in Mount Albert have had several reductions in our rates. We have had very capable Mayors and it is sheer rot to suggest that amalgamation means economy. The only saving would be a Mayor's honorarium, which would not amount to a fraction of a farthing in the pound, and we would be forced to pay for the city's white elephant house building schemes and shoulder the mounting rates and taxes, which you always get where Labour is in the saddle. I, for one. will the proposal to the last, trench. Surely we outside ratepayers should lie given a right to vote on the question. What does the name "Labour Government" mean, majority rule or Hitlerism? THREE-FIGURE RATEPAYER.