MINISTER CALLS FOR REFORM

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32273, 16 April 1970, Page 24

MINISTER CALLS FOR REFORM

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 14. Structural reform was one of the most pressing problems confronting local government in the 19705, the Minister for Local Government (Mr Seath) said tonight.

Opening the municipal conference in Wellington he said that to imagine that administrative forms of the past could be retained in the face of changes that have occurred “is simply burying one’s head in the sand." The present local government system was laid down before the age of the motorcar, he said. “The developments we are faced with today all force upon us changes in our way of life whether we like it or not,” he said. “These changes must eventually be reflected in the way we conduct our affairs, including the way local government is organised.” Mr Seath said that by 1986 New Zealand would have more than four million people. “If service to people is to continue as the basis of local government then we must all work towards ensuring that the structure and forms of local government will be strong and resilient enough to be able to meet the demands of future growth,” he said.

The Local Government Commission was completing its Wellington area scheme and was in the process of promulgating the Auckland one. These schemes would set the pattern of local government for more than 35 per cent of the country’s population. Mr Seath said that those

who resisted change should be asked to justify their stand in the same way that the Local Government Commission had to justify Its recommendations.