THE MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE

Evening Star, Issue 15223, 30 June 1913, Page 4

THE MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE

THE .MAYOR'S RETURN. Mr W. Duwnie Stewart (Mayor) returned in Dunedin on. Saturday evening sifter having attended a meeting of the Executive Committee of tlio New Zealand Municipal Association at Wellington. Tliis morning he stated that the remits which caused the most discussion were those referring to local elections and motor buties. As to the first question, an attempt was made to reduce the number of (dections held in one clay. It was pointed out that inconvenience, was caused by holding the Hospital and Charitable Aid Hoard, the Harbor Board, the City Council, and mayoral elections on the one day, and that pnsEibly in addition they would have the hiilf-bolidiiy poll also taken on that day. The difficulty was to secure a sufficient number of competent polling clerks for so many issues, in Dunedin, at the last elections, they had over 300 polling clerks 1 . The conference, however, refused to agree to the. prop, -si, as in tlie opinion "of the majority of vhe delegates greater was created in Holding so many elections on the. one day. lie (the Mayor) tried to get an I amendment carried limiting tlie pro- ! posal to separate tlie elections to the four largo cities, bit: this was also lo:>t. One important remit Horn Duiiedm dealt with the necessity for making machinery provision relating to tho conduct of elections to apply local elections. The present state, of the. election law was extremely niisaiisfac- | tory, as there wn'j r.o provision for a; scrutiny of the rolls and voting papers' by the' returning officer, and in many j other respects tlie. law was mosh defee- ', five. This n-mit was unanimously ! approved by the conferences, and tlie j Mayor added that it was very much to bo 'hoped that the Government would ,'dtor the law in the direction .indicated. !

The other remit from Dunedin wa.s the one seeking for authority to enable any municipality to run motor buses. Doubt had boon raised as to whether they had power to do so. The conference recognised that this matter was one of vital importance, after the experience of the London County Council. 'lt had boon hold by the. House of Lords that the Loudon County Council had no power to operate motor buses, and private buses competing with municipal trams had produced a very dangerous situation financially where a largo amount of the citizens' money had been locked up in capital expenditure on trams. Indeed, the conference wore so impressed with the possibilities of the present position that they went further than asked by the Duncdiu remit, and resolved to ask the Government for power to prohibit private companies from catering for the transport of the public unless the permission and license of the local authority were first obtained.