MUST CO-OPERATE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 133, 2 December 1936, Page 13

MUST CO-OPERATE

LOCAL BODIES' DUTY

RELATIONS WITH STATE

"The central Government will not allow local government to be an obstacle to progress/" said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) in a discussion with the . -'Standard" of the part that local bodies could play in removing the problem of unemployment. The Government had had before it reports from members of Parliament on schedules of works that were being carried out and that could be carried out in their districts, said Mr. Savage; and from these it was evident that, while some local bodies had caught the spirit of the new Administration, there were others which did not wish the Labour policy of re-employment to succeed. ■' "We wish to increase the authority and powers of local government," said Mr. Savage, "but that must go hand in hand with the unification of the system of local government and the infusion of something like life into it. "It just comes to this: so long as local government exists on conservative lines and fails to work in with the policy of the central authority, we can't get very far. And this central authority is not going to allow local bodies to be obstacles to progress. "There was a Bill before the House in the closing stages of the session providing for the termination or amalgamation of unnecessary local bodies. That should have been a sufficient indication of what is likely to happen. Some of them have been doing good work and will, I know, continue to do so. "Others have been more influenced by political venom than by any desire to work constructively for the wellbeing of our citizens." The Prime Minister indicated that local government was being closely watched and studied, and that when Parliament assembled again it might be dealt with in a way that would not be one of the least interesting events in next year's history.