URBAN PROBLEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23284, 1 March 1939, Page 15

URBAN PROBLEMS

DOMINION CONFERENCE CROWN AND RATE PAYMENTS Fifty-eiglit remits on a wide variety of subjects are to be considered by delegates to the 29th conference of the Municipal Association of New Zealand, to be held in Dunedin from March 8 to 10. are 14 remits from Auckland and neighbourhood. One of the Auckland City Council's remits has as its intention legislation requiring the"Crown to adopt the same procedure as a private builder and supply the local authority with building plans, to take out a building permit, and to pay the usual fee. Another remit dealing with the liability of the Crown has been submitted by the Takapunn Borough Council, which wants the Crown to pay rates in full irrespective of whether properties are let, and also to pay water rates and permit fees as prescribed by by-laws. The Onq. Tree Hill Borough Council has forwarded a remit to ask the Minister o!t Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, to instruct the State Advances Corporation to pay all rates levied on State-owned dwellings under its control in full before the close of each financial year, and that any portion of the rates on each property for which the corporation is not liable under tho existing arrangement be refunded by the local authority immediately after advice of the amount overpaid. An Invercargill remit seeks to makeit unnecessary for councils to fill a vacancy unless the personnel is reduced . beyond the minimum requirements ot the Municipal Corporations Act. Tins levy of a uniform library fee in place of a special library rate is another suggestion to be considered. Another recommends "authority for traffic inspectors to inflict and collect small fines for a breach of the traffic by-laws, the offender to have the right to defend

the case in Court if he desires. The licensing of all hawkers ' and itinerant \-endors by the Police Department, and a minimum annual dog registration fee of 20s for all but dogs used for droving sheep and cattle, are other remits to be considered by thf conference;