THE COUNTIES' CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1212, 22 August 1911, Page 6

THE COUNTIES' CONFERENCE.

TO MEET TO-DAY. Tlio Counties' Conference opens this morning at 10 o'clock in the Sydney Street Schoolroom, under the presidency of Mr. A. E. Jull, Waipawa. The agenda paper contains 135 remits which cover a wide ■ range of subjects. Among the most important are the following

The Lake-County Council, for the purposes of subsidies, desires to hove local bodies classified in the order of their requirements for'assistance in fomiing and maintaining roads; 011 tho annual rate in the £ levied by them; on , tho area of Crown or Native land comprised in the county, which yields little or 110 rates, and yet necessitates expenditure in forming and maintaining roads. Waiapu asks that grants for roads and bridges bo paid on some definite basis, a ljasis automatic and not dependent on the will of the Minister as at present. Atamatoa desires that the Government be asked to amend tho principle upon which subsidy on rales is payable, so that the subsidy to local bodies will be increased in proportion, anil in accordance with the amount levied in the JL'. instead of diminishing as at present enacted, by the limit clauses. Another remit seeks to have large subsidies paid to those local authorities who arc not assisted by railways in their districts.