LOCAL BODY AMALGAMATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23225, 24 June 1937, Page 7

LOCAL BODY AMALGAMATION

FAR NORTH OF AUCKLAND

CONFERENCE WITH MINISTER

(Pisa United Press Association)

WHANGAREI, June 23. Whangarei to-day was the centre of a gathering of representatives of local bodies to discuss with the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. E. Parry) details of the local body amalgamation proposal. Practically ail Northland’s 32 local bodies were represented. Mr Parry outlined the general provisions of the Bill which, he said, was a good one, because it had practically escaped criticism. He had found that most local bodies agreed on the principle but had failed to find one favoured scheme. “ It lias been said I am a Mussolini, a Hitler,” Mr Parry said, “ but that is a mentally lazy way of disposing of another man’s arguments.” It was a matter of indifference what Minister or what party tackled the problem so long as a practical solution was reached and the drift of the past 40 years was halted. Mr Parry dealt with the scheme prepared for the north by Mr H. C. Hemphill (secretary of the North Auckland Counties’ Association). Paying tribute to the author, he said it was one of the best schemes he had studied to date. Dealing with the problem of the north one had to dissociate his mind from the old idea that the. North was an isolated, unnecessary part of the Dominion. That idea had prevailed too long. The north was rapidly developing into one of the most important farming areas of the Dominion with just claims for regarding itself as vital , to the prosperity of the country.