Town Hall Site

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29273, 3 August 1960, Page 7

Town Hall Site

Sir,—l am not in agreement with your recent editorial. The Public Works Act was introduced to stop individuals or parties standing in the way of essential undertakings such as railways, railway tunnels, roads, transmission lines. The act was designed to be used originally by Government departments and while I hold no brief for the bureaucrats in Wellington I do look upon them as »e--sponsible bodies. They are responsible because they are continuing bodies. The permanent head of such a department is not likely to use this act lightly. A city council is quite a different body. It is made up of people elected for a short time by the

ratepayers; they come and go. Unless they do something that is illegal they cannot be brought to task by the people who elected them. The only power the voters have is not to elect them again. Such a body is not a continuous body and thus I do not consider it a responsible body. If .such a body had the power without any curb or restraint to take over private properties to suit their whims of the moment it would be a very grave infringement of the people’s rights.—Yours, etc., LIBERTY.

August 1, 1960. The powers conferred by the Public Works Act are exercised not by civil servants but by Ministers of the Crown, who are elected for the same term of office as city councillors. Ed., “The Press.”]