Australian Letter Local Bodies Divided On Efficiency Experts

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29189, 27 April 1960, Page 26

Australian Letter Local Bodies Divided On Efficiency Experts

[Australian Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

SYDNEY, April 26. Aidermen in Sydney shire and municipal councils are sharply divided on the question of whether efficiency experts should be employed by councils. No council in New South Wales at present has efficiency experts or management consultants, but the Local Government Association has signified its approval of the consultants by calling a meeting with them at the end of this month. The association will examine about six firms and list their qualifications for the guidance of municipal and shire councils. A spokesman for the association said: “Some areas should welcome advice from experts with training in local government." However, all the signs at present are that efficiency experts will meet stiff opposition. The Minister of Local Government, Mr P. D. Hills, has ruled that local bodies can seek advice from outside experts specialising in a particular field. One Sydney council has already appointed a firm of consultants to make a preliminary survey of its methods and advise changes. Aiderman L. F. McGinty, Mayor of the large Willoughby municipality, said councils would benefit immensely from consultations with business efficiency experts. “Aidermen and staff using methods and ideas of big business would make good councils.” he said. Other suburban mayors said they could learn nothing from the experts. Several said they had consulted efficiency firms but their reports showed that councils could gain nothing from their advice. The Sydney "Daily Telegraph" commended the decisions of the Local Government Association to examine management consultant firms and to decide their qualifications for giving advice to councils. It said there must be many ratepayers who sometimes wonder, when they compare the rates charged by their own council with lower rates charged by adjoining councils, whether their local affairs couldn’t be run more efficiently.

A Social Welfare Bill introduced into the Victorian Legislative Assembly aims at a new deal for juvenile delinquents by paying more attention to family life.

The Director of Penal Services. Mr A. R. Whatmore, said: “Even an inadequate mother is a better mother than the State.” Mr Whatmore who has visited New Zealand, England, the Continent and the United States to study penal science developments, becomes first director genera] of social welfare under the measure. “Our aim,’’ he said, “will be to keep children out of detention homes. Delinquents will be sent there only when we have to admit we cannot rectify the short comings of their family homes.”

Under the bill, major changes will be made in the penal and reformatory systems, requiring the provision of new institutions, the alteration of existing ones, and the -training of staff. The Social Welfare Department will be charged with the promotion of family welfare and the mending of broken homes. The Youth Welfare Division will deal with the social problems of young persons. It will maintain youth training centres and remand centres—with no trace of prison atmosphere—for young persons convicted or awaiting trial for any offence punishable by imprisonment.

The establishment of youth clubs, with instructors, for the moral, intellectual and physical welfare and development of young persons is another function for the division.

Legislation now before the New South Wales Parliament reducing the scope of inquests will bring about a legal reform similar to one introduced in Britain 34 years ago. Its main object is to prevent

statements being made at inquests that would prejudice the subsequent trial of a person charged with murder or manslaughter. In introducing the bill in the Legislative Assembly, Mr N. J. Mannix said that coroners were now empowered to accept purely hearsay evidence, and lawyers on both sides of a case could embark on large-scale “fishing expeditions’’ to obtain statements from witnesses that would not be acceptable in a criminal court. Such evidence could prejudice the minds of potential jurymen when they read it, said Mr Mannix.

The new legislation would limit the evidence at the inquest to facts about the existence and identity of a body, and in some cases the cause of death. This means, in effect, that when a person has been charged over a death, an inquest will be formally opened by the Coroner and then adjourned until a jury has given a verdict. The inquest will then be reopened, and the Coroner will bring in a finding consistent with the verdict. The formal opening of an inquest before the trial is necessary to enable the Registrar-Gen-eral to receive the registration of death and to enable probate to b granted of the dead person’s will.

Holes are now being drilled in Adelaide beaches in a search for oil. The drilling began last week. The holes, four inches wide, are being drilled at quarter-mile intervals and charges will be exploded in the holes. The results of tests will decide whether major drilling will start in or near Adelaide.

Geologists have known for some time that a reasonably deep sedimentation area, possibly containing oil, lies beneath St. Vincent’s Gulf and extends under Adelaide. Los Angeles, which is said to resemble Adelaide in topography, has many oil wells on the outskirts of the city. sS «S

Drought conditions now prevail in many parts of New South Wales. Graziers fear heavy sheep losses unless good relief rains fall before winter sets in. The large western districts of Narrabri Hillson, Canobra and Cobar have been declared drought areas for freight concessions in fodder, and similar declarations have been sought for other western and nort’’-western areas. Supplementary feeding is now being carried out over a very large portion of the State, and in some districts farmers are hand-feeding stock. Several inland rivers have ceased to flow. In two north-western towns, children are carrying water to school in bottles.

In the large Sutherland shire, on the southern perimeter of Sydney, a referendum is being held among 25,000 ratepayers to decide whether the shire shall have an Olympic swimming pool. The referendum was decided on by the shire council after two years of controversy. Sutherland shire, with a population of 100,000, is surrounded on three sides by water. Ratepayers are evenly divided on the question. Voting is not compulsory. The pool will cost about £75,000. The referendum asks ratepayers whether they are willing to pay the extra rates to build the pool. It is estimated that ratepayers will have to pay an extra 12s 6d a year for three years.