COUNTY CONFERENCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 55, 28 August 1939, Page 5

COUNTY CONFERENCE

| ' ,/ :• ' % . >"*' v. • HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES A fuli-and ! 'able report of the Coun ties conference in which he' attended as the council's representative along with Mr G. H. Brebner t was given to the Whakatane County Council on Tuesday by the chairman, Cr J. L. Burnett. The Minister of Internal Affairs had told them that the local bodies amalgamation plan, had not been dropped, though it had been altered in one or two respects. One matter which he thought .vas mishandled concerned the remit to rcduce the heavy traffic license on farm trucks by a third. Amendments were tallied to ieduce it by a half, to make it £1 and to abolish it altogether. The conference threw out the amendments 5 and got a little out of hand, sr. that when the chairman put the motion that ? too, was defeated. Cr Burnett was disappointed as Hie Government could, if it | wished, take the attitude that the counties had failed to give it a lead., j and it. could make any change It j thought fit. Some said Cr Burnett, , were not collecting the tax at all. They were very foolish in that they were breaking the law. The Whakatane remit regarding the throwing of ragwort plants into a river was altered to make it an offence to throw any noxious weeds into a river, and it was carried. Regarding the Kopuriki bridge Ci Burnett said he saw Mr A. G. Hultquist M. P. and authorised him to tell the Minister that if the Government paid the full Galatea rates the council would raise the rest of the money and build the bridge. Later the Minister told him that the estate had made a loss ? and there was no possibility of the money being found He had spoken to Mr F. W. Doidge M.P. and Sir A. Xgata regarding the . Matata water supply £ nd the matter Avould be pressed.