CONTROL OF THAMES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 227, 23 August 1940, Page 8

CONTROL OF THAMES.

COMMISSIONER SYSTEM. (By Telegraph—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 23. That commissioner control of the Thames borough was enabling it to overcome a serious financial difficulty was explained in the House to-day by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon W. E. Parry) on the second reading of the Bill to extend commissioner control till 1947 and approve a loan conversion' to a 3 per cent, basis. Alombers’ questions elicited the fact that in Thames the unimproved value of £IBO,OOO was half its total indebtedness.

Hon. A. Hamilton (Leader of the Opposition), commending the Bill, congratulated Thames on getting out of its difficulties. Only two local bodies had got- into trouble in the last, depression and the commissioner system had worked well. He thought the semi-autocratic system of a dictator working with an advisory committee seemed a good thing. Mr A, E. Jull: l r ou are on tender ground. Air J. A. Lee: The bondholder is with his finger on the gun all the time.

Air Hamilton agreed he was on tender ground ,and he was not advocating that the system should have general application, but the commissioner system operating under such circumstances as at Thames had much to commend it as halfway between the democrat and the dictator. “Good ‘luck to Thames,” he concluded. “they have made- a good arrangement.”