POWER TO DEAL IN LAND

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26672, 5 March 1952, Page 6

POWER TO DEAL IN LAND

REQUEST BY LOCAL BODIES (New Zealand Press Association) ROTORUA, March 4. A report that the Internal affairs Department had not approved a remit carried at the association’s previous conference, that municipal authorities should be empowered to acquire and develop, subdivide and sell or lease lands for industrial purposes, was not accepted by the Municipal Association at its annual conference to-day. Mr W. E. Barpard (Tauranga.) moved that the remit be referred back to the executive. He sqid that it was time the policy that it was not the function of a local body to enter into the buying and selling of land for industrial purposes, was changed. The idea behind the remit, he said, was to give a local body power to deter the exploiter of land. A borough council should have power to acquire land for a general scheme, and be able to sell sites at reasonable prices. U was a vital principle, and the fact that it gave a local body the right to carry out the speculative buying of jand made the Government shy off the question, added Mr Barnard.