COUNTY COUNCILS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 7

COUNTY COUNCILS

AMALGAMATION-SCHEME

WAIRARAPA CONFERENCE

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

MASTERTON. March 10.

Advice was received at yesterday's meeting of the'Masterton County Council that.the Minister of Internal/Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) would address a conference of representatives of all county councils in the Wairarapa district at Masterton, on Wednesday1, April 14, at 2.30 p.m., to discuss the Government's local body amalgamation proposals. Arrangements for the Minister's visit Were' left in the hands of the chairman, Mr. W. I. Armstrong, and the clerk, Mr.. J.. C. D. ; Mackley.

"I do not think that it is any good doing anything until we hear what the Minister has to say,", observed the chairman, Mr. Armstrong, when referring at yesterday's meeting of the Masterton County Council to a letter from the New Zealand Counties' Association asking for the council's views on the amalgamation of local bodies.

Councillor P. R. Welsh said no good could come out of protests by the council. The Government's proposals would go ahead just the same. "We protested strongly against the transference ~of traffic control," he added, "but-it did no good. It was all cut and dried beforehand."

It was decided to advise the Counties' Association that the Masterton County would have preferred to carry on as at present but it realised that amalgamation would be forced on local bodies by the Government. "