MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1934, Page 5

MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE

LOCAL BODY LOANS.

[FEB PBESft ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON, March 15.

The Municipal Conference adopted the iwo following resolutions regarding local body loans: —’“That the Government be asked to take • up any loans that local bodies may in future raise in London, and that the Government be approached to see if it can effect the conversion in London of local body debentures by the issue by the Government of debentures in lieu of the exisitng loans, and the taking by it, of new debentures from local bodies to cover the liability so undertaken.” “That this Conference is of the opinion that the burden of oversea indebtedness, as effecting local bodies, is greater than the economic conditions warrant, and an equitable adjustment of interest payments, having regard to the Dominion’s income, is imperative, particularly in the case of the larger local bodies. The payment of interest in London represents a. considerable proportion of local body commitments. The Conference is fully cognisant of the gravity of this proposal, but. the circumstances, warrant the Government in entering into negotiations with the oversea leaders with a view of obtaining relief.”

UNEMPLOYMENT LEVY. The Conference, by a majority vote, recorded its opinion that the relief workers should not be called upon to pay the unemployment levy. The remit was from Birkenhead. The voting was 46 to 40.

Concern was expressed as to how tho Government was to make up the £70,000 that would thereby be lost to the Board, but the supporters of the motion took the attitude that that was the Government’s affair, but the Government. should not tax the unemployed.

Mr. D. G. Sullivan, M.P., was elected P/esident of the Municipal Association. The next conference of the Association will be at Christchurch.