Call for regional authorities

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33521, 30 April 1974, Page 2

Call for regional authorities

(New Zealand Press Association) NAPIER, April 29. Local body executive officers would rather see the introduction of regional authorities than united councils when the Local Governmen Bill is introduced.

This was agreed today after discussions on the biii and its effects on members of the Institute of Town Clerks and Municipal Treasurers. The institute is meeting in Napier. It was asserted that there would be less interference from a regional council than front a united council. The Mayor of Napier (Mr P. Tait) urged local body officers to review their enthusiasm and raise their standards.

i Mr Tait was opening the : conference. He said it was a i sorry situation when major I cities were unable to hnd i suitable applicants for the 'position of town clerk. The retiring president of • the institute, Mr G. O. Sims, of Auckland, said that the I rationalisation of local government would improve and strengthen career opportunities for local body officers. In his report to the conference, Mr Sims said he supI ported the basic aim of the Local Government Bill to strengthen local government. The institute will ask the Department of Internal : Affairs to begin advertising 'the fact that 18-year-olds I now have the right to vote tin local body elections. The Town Clerk of Lower Hutt (Mr E. C. Perry), was elected president of the institute. Messrs M. G. Clarke I (town clerk, Blenheim) and IT. S. Watson (town clerk, i Ashburton), were elected to jthe executive. * The two-day conference,

preceding the Municipal Association of New Zealand’s annual conference, also to be held in Napier, began today and will end tomorrow with an address by the Minister of Local Government (Mr May).