THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1906. THE MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Volume 13696, Issue 13696, 12 September 1906, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1906. THE MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE.

It was a subject of complaint at the Municipal Conference, which was held in Wellington last week, that the .recommendations of previous conferences had been ignored by the Government and that really no legislative effect had been given to" them. Nor did the Colonial Secretary, to whom, a deputation of tlio delegates submitted the resolutions that were adopted at the most recent conference, hold out the slightest hope that, even if the Government was prepared to accept the recommendations of the conference, legislation to grant them the force of law could he passed tliis session. Possibly if, as one of ,our contemporaries has suggested, the conference had requested the 1 Government to include in the Municipal' Corporations Bill, which is said to be ready for introduction, proposals for the enactment of only the most important and least controversial of the amendments favoured by the delegates there might have been sonio chance of the passage of the desired legislation, But the Municipal Conference, like some of the other conferences that are periodically held in the colony, seems to have addressed itself to the consideration of an enormous variety ot proposed amendments, good, bad, and indifferent, in the existing law, ana, while many of the recommendations it adopted may be fittingly described as weighty and valuable, in-ny others were unquestionably trivial and unimportant. Among the questions of wide policy that were discussed was one of some consequeuce in its relation to the maintenance of the health of the community, the conferenco resolving to ask the Government to procure such an amendment of" The Dairy Industry Act, 1895," as would give Borough Councils or tno Department of Agriculture authority to proclaim milk districts similar to those now obtaining in respect to abattoirs, and to control the sale of milk in the proposed districts. The intention of this proposal, which emanated from the Christ-church City Council, is to permit the prohibition of the sale of milk 'within any proclaimed area except under such conditions as the controlling authorities may determine. ■Another matter of public interest that was discussed was that of the exemption of Government property from municipal rating, and it was agreed by the conference that the present system, whereby Government lands purchased for workmen's homes or other similar purposes are exempted from rating whilst remaining unoccupied Crown lands, is manifestly unfair to the local body in whoso district such lands aro situate, as well as to the private owners and ratepayers of property in- such district. A further proposal, of which the soundness must be generally manifest, asserted the

desirability that, where workmen's homes are' erected within the limits of a borough,, those buildings should in all respects conform to the building and sanitary by-laws in force in the district. The conference practically passed its condemnation upon the system whereby a general election of councillors is now hold every two years. Tito system probably lias its advantages as well as its disadvantages, bill; the- derogates, who may be presumed to bo competent judges of the value of tho'present method as compared with tho system which it superseded, decided l to recommend a virtual reversion to tho old law that required that one-third of tbc members of a council should retire every year. As the conference was unfavourable to the. maintenance of tho present plan mider which the whole of the councillors arc elected biennially, its rejection of a proposal that the mayoral term'of office should be extended to a period of two years was marked by consistency, and in the sliort shrift which it gave to a motion that the Mayor should be elected from among the members of the council it certainly gave expression to what must be held to be popular opinion. A scheme for tho institution of a superannuation fund' to provide for the retirement on satisfactory terms of aged employees of the various municipalities was discussed by the conference, but while the proposal seems already to have received the ; attention of the city and borough councils that worn represented in Wellington - , the details of it wore not disclosed.