MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15055, 26 July 1912, Page 5

MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION.

THE COMING CONFERENCE.

The annual conference of delegates to tho Municipal Association of New Zealand will bo commenced in Wellington on Monday next. The president of the association, Mr. D. McLaren (Mayor of Wellington) will preside.

The agenda list is a very lengthy one, and includes no less than 114 remits. Some important questions will bo dealt with, all affecting the public business now conducted by local bodies.

A Gisborne remit asks the conference to recommend the abolition of licensing committees, and that their functions and duties should be transferred to the load authority in each district. Another remit regarding the Licensing Act, from New Plymouth, suggests that the license fees for hotels should be increased, the movers being of the opinion that tho present fee is not commensurate with the value of the monopoly created by the granting of the license?.

An Alexandra (Central Otago) remit reads :—" That, in view of the, fact that much valuable land in various localities has been permanently rendered useless by dredging and mining operations, The Mining Act, 1908, bo amended to provide for protection from the destroying effects of dredging and other forms of mining of all lauds suitable for cultivation."

The Invercargill delegate will move :—- " That, in connection with the payment of railway crossing-keepers by borough councils where tramways across the railway exist, it is thought that the Government should pay at least half of the amount incurred, as a. crossing-keeper should be provided in any case in the interests of publio safety."

Other remits deal with the revaluations of boroughs, unpaid rates to local bodies, powers of local bodies to deal with unpaid rates, the purging of district electors' rolls, and other matters of interest in local government.