DIRECT ACTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 83, 20 June 1944, Page 6

DIRECT ACTION

VIEW OF WHAKATANE COUNTY COUNCIL DISCUSSION AT COUNTY MEETING At Jthe last, meeting of the Waitomo County Council a letter was received from" the Whakatane. County Council .suggesting that county councils should urgently petition Parliament to enact legislation which would provide that, all local body funds would be subscribed from sources other than rates on lands so that all electors would shoulder the financial responsibility for providing funds which all electors under a universal franchise would administer. Also that the question of investigating and reporting on local body administration should not be disputed to a Parliamentary committee but to a Royal Commission. The Parliamentary Committee, set up comprised eight Government and six Opposition members; a majority of members of the .Government which forced the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Bill through the House. The Whakatane County Council asked that the matters raised should be represented to the Government and to local members of Parliament. On the chairman's suggestion it was decided to read a circular from the Counties' Association in conjunction with the matter .which warned county councils from taking precipitate action soon after the elections. The circular emphatically denied a rumour that the executive did not intend tendering evidence, before the Parliamentary Committee set up to inquire into the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Bill. It was further suggested by the Association that a Royal Commission be set up. The letter from the Whakatane County Council was received in the meantime.