LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30807, 20 July 1965, Page 14

LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

Liberals To Stand The Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Liberal Party will sponsor candidates for the forthcoming local body elections in Christchurch—a decision which has received the unanimous support of the party’s executive committee.

In a supplied statement, the committee’s chairman (Mr A. A. Mackintosh) said the Liberal Party was of the opinion that local government in particular needed unfettered and clear thinking as well as a departure from the present two-party political bias. “Liberal Party candidates if elected to a local body would always be quite free to vote according to their individual thinking in the interests of the ratepayers and the public in general,” he said. “Liberal Party members are convinced after a study of local body administration, particularly in Christchurch, that there is a great need for restraint in the spending of public monies and full discussion by the councils concerned, before large sums are committed to projects of limited and sometimes doubtful importance. “Liberal Party members elected to local bodies would devote particular attention to a complete revision of the present ridiculous and outmoded rating system and the introduction of a citizen’s contribution act to give relief to the already overburdened ratepayer. There seems no end to rate demand increases,” said Mr Mackintosh.