POWER BOARD CONFERENCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 September 1934, Page 9

POWER BOARD CONFERENCE

CENTRALISATION OF CONTROL. 3 [PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, September 13. At the Power Boards’ Conference, Mr Holdsworth, of Auckland, introduced a proposal for a. Development Board with a permanent secretariat. The proposal revealed a strong division between the town and country. Mr J. O’Shea, delegate of the Wellington City Council, voiced the feeling of the recently-formed Municipal Supply Authorities’ Association, as being totally opposed to the establishment of any such organisation. » Supporting the proposal, a South Canterbury delegate said that lack of a central authority giving cohesion and continuity was the reason lor the breakaway of the municipal supply authorities. Mr O’Shea said that if they were going to get anywhere, it would not be by any American “get rich quick” methods. It was going to be by economy. Economy could be the watchword of the supply authorities, as it had been of the municipalities. Ho suggested that if regulation was required in the sparsely-populated areas the cost could be borne by the Conosolidated Fund in the same way as that in which the Government took over the reading of the backblocks. After a very long discussion, the motion was altered to read that the report of the sub-committee be adopted, and be referred to the Executive for the formulation of a definite scheme which would be submitted to the Boards for approval, the Executive to have the power to act if the supply authorities agreed to their proposals.