WIDESPREAD CHANGES IN LOCAL BODY STRUCTURE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29162, 24 March 1960, Page 14

WIDESPREAD CHANGES IN LOCAL BODY STRUCTURE

Mr Meech’s Submissions To Committee

(.'.ew Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 23. New Zealand’s present pattern of local government was so confusing as to be almost impossible to follow, the secretary for Internal Affairs, Mr J. V. Meech, said in evidence to the Parliamentary Local Bills Committee today. He said the confusion was caused by a multiplicity of local authorities having jurisdiction over a single district and resulted in overlapping, waste, financial complications, jealousy and rivalry. Mr Meech was giving his department’s views on the committee’s first order of reference “Whether the structure of local government in New Zealand, as at present constituted, is capable of meeting the increasing needs and demands of a rapidly developing population and economy in the most efficient and suitable manner?”

Mr Meech said defects in the present system were almost entirely due to the growth in the number and types of local authorities and past failures to rationalise the position.

“The increase in the number of borough administrations is in some cases understandable, and the growth of ad hoc authorities is also Mnderstandable, although the cause of this is to be deplored. “But the almost 100 per cent, increase in the number of counties since 1876 (from 63 to 121), has achieved nothing in the long run except a weakening of the whole county structure,” Mr Meech said.

“Modern trends of transport, postal, telephone, and radio communication, and the growth of population and industry, have resulted in the expansion of areas having a common community of interest.

“Logically, the result should have been a reduction in the number of rural territorial local authorities—not an increase or maintenance of the existing number.” Mr Meech said there was a “rather astounding” increase in the number of ad hoc authorities —from 415 to 688—in the 12 years ending November 1, 1959 The number of territorial local authorities (counties, boroughs, and towns) dropped in the same period from 317 to 295. Mr Meech said some of the more important functions now being carried out by ad hoc authori-

ties which, in the department’s opinion, were properly the functions of territorial authorities were: land drainage and river control, electricity reticulation and distribution, hospital administration, rabbit destruction, milk distribution, harbour control, urban drainage, urban transport, fire prevention, and underground water control. Trend to Centralism He said the 'emergence and growth of ad hoc authorities had inevitably reinforced the trend towards centralism. “Almost without exception, such authorities are under the control of a central board or council charged with carrying into effect government policy. “It is perhaps idle to speak of centralism when, generally speaking, the trend is not the result of a conscious policy consistently pursued by central government, but rather the inability, and sometimes the unwillingness, of the territorial authorities to act themselves. “The first requirement is to adjust the territorial authority structure so that it is capable of resisting such a drift and so preserve one of the requirements of good local government, that is, its ability to deal with all matters of peculiarly local significance,” Mr Meech said. “A large amount of finance is supplied to local authorities from central taxation by way of subsidies and grants. This means that a great deal of their work is financed by national revenue.

“In addition, the central Government fijom time to time advances considerable sums to local authorities to meet unforeseen financial difficulties caused by emergencies, such as floods and other disasters.’’ Dealing with the “urbanisation’’ of counties, Mr Meech said the lack of a co-ordinated approach to the common problems of county and borough administration was nowhere more clearly seen than in the case of counties contiguous to rapidly expanding urban centres. Town Planning “In the planning field there is ample evidence that, in the past, little thought has been given to the dependence of cities on nearby rural areas, although these lands provide many of the facilities which make city life bearable.

“The unplanned growth of cities and consequent ribbon development into the surrounding countryside is seen in the despoiled rural areas, where the resulting urbanisation has not been consolidated. 1

“Clearly one of the major causes of this undesirable trend has been the lack of a unified approach to the problems involved, because of the multiplicity of territorial local authorities. "Assuming that county boundaries remain as they are, by 1980 it is expected that more than one of every three persons in the Christchurch urban area will be living in a county, and so under the administration of a local authority whose district was designed as a purely rural area. “Over the country as a whole, no fewer than 25 per cent, of urban residents of the 15 largest centres will be under county administration, unless, of . course, more boroughs are formed or existing ones enlarged. The problems of co-ordinating the provision of services to these people with those provided for the residents of the cities and boroughs alongside, with whom they have an affinity Of interest, are not likely to decrease,” Mr Meech said. Need For Reappraisal “So far there has not been any positive planning for the future in all aspects of local government. There is a very great need to plan a local government structure which will assume its proper role and, at the same time, meet the needs of the future. “I do not consider that a completely new system of territorial local government should be instituted in place of the existing authorities—that would be changing horses in mid-stream. What is needed is a reorganised structure to which the present system can be welded,” Mr Meech added. The Local Bills Committee comprises Mr H. L. J. May, M.P., the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. T. Anderton, and Messrs J. M. Deas (Labour, Otahuhu), W. A Fraser (Labour, St. Kilda), W. H. Gillespie (National, Hurunui), T. L. Hayman (National, Waitaki), N. E. Kirk (Labour, Lyttelton), D. C. Seath (National, Waitomo), W. B. Tennent (National, Manawatu), and S. A. Whitehead (Labour, Nelson).

The hearing is expected to last for six weeks.