MUNICIPAL BILL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21640, 4 November 1933, Page 13

MUNICIPAL BILL

AMENDMENTS APPEAR TRIENNIAL BOROUGH POLLS CONTROL OF HOARDINGS [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON, Friday The Municipal Corporations Bill, which was introduced by Governor-Gen-eral's Message and read a first time in the House of Representatives this afternoon, is substantially the same as the measure before Parliament last session. During the recess consideration has been given to some of the provisions which were then the subject of criticism, and a few alterations have been made. It was provided in the original bill that the elections of borough councillors should be triennial after 1935, but under the amendment in the new bill all future elections will be triennial. Various defects found in the clauses providing for the appointment of standing or special committees by borough councils have been remedied. This provision was invoked for the purpose of setting up the committee of management which had control of Napier after the Hawke's Bay earthquake. The appointment and functioning of that committee revealed many weaknesses in the relative clauses and the opportunity has been taken to amend them. In addition, the sections dealing with the appointment of joint committees have been reframed, as they were found in their present form to be really unworkable. Passing Special Orders The clause setting out the procedure to bo adopted by a borough council in passing a special order has been altered so as to reduce to four the number of advertisements required between the two meetings of the council at which the special order is made.

Alteration has been made to the clause empowering borough councils to declare private streets or rights of way to be public streets. A borough council is given power by special order to declare any private street or right of way to be a public street and thus allow the council to maintain in a proper state of repair such streets. A council cannot do this until such street or right of way, or the frontages thereto, are properly formed by the owners. Every private street and right of way so declared shall become a street vested in the corporation. A slight amendment has beeu made to the clause dealing with building-line restrictions. The bill provides that the of any land affected by by-laws fixing a building-line may at any time dedicate to the corporation for street purposes the whole of his interest in any part of the land on which the re-, erection of buildings is forbidden by operation of the by-law. The council shall accept such dedication, but it may refuse to accept it unless and until it is satisfied that on the remainder of the land substantial building or rebuilding operations have been undertaken since the coming into force of the by-law. Supply of Electricity

The original bill provided that a council, havingiestablished electric light works, might supply electricity to a person residing beyond the borough only with the consent of the local authority of the district in which the supply was given and of the electricpower board within whose supply area the district or any part of it was situated. There was some opposition to the requirement of the consent of the electric-power board and this latter part of the provision has now been withdrawn. The bill provides that the consent of a borough council must be obtained before any subdivision of land within the borough may be made. Words have been added to this provision to make it clear that the borough council may require provision made for the construction of streets or the making of reserves, even although provision for these was not contained in the original plan of subdivision as submitted for approval. In last year's bill borough councils were given additional powers to control hoardings and other display signs and advertisements. These additional powers were objected to, and subsequently negotiations were started between the principally interested parties. These negotiations are still in progress, and in the meantime no additions to the present law on this subject are included in the bill.

An addition is made to a schedule of tho bill to place beyond doubt tho powers of a borough council to secure the demolition of ruinous buildings. Tho Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. J. A. Young, in reply to a question whether tho amalgamation proposals were the same as in last year's bill, said that tho bill on that point was essentially tho same as last year. There were provisions for a commission to sit and hear evidence and it would be for the Government to determine in the light of reports whether amalgamations as recommended should be adopted. The Minister agreed to refer the bill to a Select Committee. It was then read a second time pro forma and referred to the Local Bills Committee.

WAR PENSIONS BILL

REFERENCE TO COMMITTEE [by tei.eghaftt—rnicss association] WELLINGTON, Friday The War Pensions Bill (Mr. J. A. Lee) was read a second time pro forma and referred to tho Defence Committee by tho House of Representatives to-day.