The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1937. LOCAL BODY AMALGAMATION.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13577, 1 June 1937, Page 4

The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1937. LOCAL BODY AMALGAMATION.

In a brief Press Association wire from Gisborne on Saturday lion. Kobt. Semple, Minister of Public Works was credited with ha-ving. intimated that the Government did not intend to force any local bodies to amalgamate and that they had decided to delete the compulsory clause from the proposal. We wonder why it was that Mr Semple had the responsibility of making this statement instead of Mr Parry under whose eye the whole proposal was sponsored Local bodies were asked to forward their views on the proposal and make any suggestions to the Minister and this evoked almost unanimous disapproval from one end ot New Zealand to the other. The chief objection to the proposal lay in the absence of any definite indication ot economy that would bo brought about, and moreover, many counties were not at all sure that there would be the same degree of efficiency under amalgamation where it was carried out on a large scale. In the eases of the Wairarapa counties the Minister proposed that there be two big bodies—Kketahima, Pahiatua and Akitio with the remaining bodies grouped under one. The next move was a decision by the latter agreeing to amalgamate under two counties. Meanwhile Eketahuna became restive and called a. meeting and a similar move was also carried out by the Akitio body, the result of which was a conference in Pahiatua between Pahiatua, Akitio and Pk eta him a Counties. At this meeting none of the delegates favoured amalgamation as proposed by the .Minister, passing a. resolution to this effect with a qualifying clause. This indicated that they would be amenable to any reasonable proposal that would not interfere with their rights and privileges. One question that practically all counties should agree on, however, is that under the present boundary system the community of interest could he improved by a reshuffle of boundaries. If the Minister's statement can be regarded as an official pronouncement however, we wiil not hear much more of amalgamation .