UNION OF BOROUGHS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21129, 11 March 1932, Page 8

UNION OF BOROUGHS.

POWERS OF THE CITY. MAY REJECT AMALGAMATION. There is a fairly general misconception concerning the right of a local body, such as the Auckland City Council, to refuse to agree to amalgamation /with a contiguous area. The view is widely beld that a borough, such as Mount Albert, having carried a poll in favour of joining the city, can come in without th# city electors or their controlling body having any power to resist it. Such * power is, however, definitely granted W tho Municipal Corporations Act, and it was by virtue of this provision in the statute that the City Council was nbla to make the stipulation that Mount Albert would not be accepted unless the Blount Eden poll was also favourable to auifls 3 mation. The Municipal Corporations Act pro* vides that any two or more boroughs forming one continuous area may be con stitutcd one united borough, a city betf, included in the definition ol a boro'i£ A poll in favour of the proposal to amalgamate, having been taken in area desiring the union, a petition is 'l'® presented to the Governor-General b} t council of the borough in which the P cl was taken praying that one unl borough be constituted. It. is liec®- 53 however, for the council of the bon r with which it is desired to unite to e* press its approval by also presenting petition asking that the united bonw* bo constituted. Acceptance of Albert as part of the city would t u rest with the City Council. There appears, to be. no pre\isi°" the Act for t!ie taking of a rc! ' Cl^ n " to determine the wishes of the c f of the city to guide the City Counc the event of there being a dh opinion among the electors as to sirability of an amalgamation P ro P oS