LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12584, 14 October 1911, Page 7

LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

WORK FOR A WHOLE SIvSSIOX. ; (From Our l'arlianientarv Reporter.) : WELLINGTON, this day. "Will you circulate ihe Local Government Bill this session?" asked Mr Pearce of the Prime ""Minister m th? House yesterday afternoon. "1 don't intend to circulate the Bill until after the elections,"' said Sir Joseph Ward, m reply. The Bill, he added, ran into nearly 500 clauses. It was" a very important Bill, a- -very difficult Bill; and he believed it would take ;i session to itself. A member : "Is it drafted?" "Yes," 1 said Sir Joseph Ward. He felt perfectly sure, he said, that when the Bill was circulated the representatives of the various local bodies would need to give it careful consideration; and m all probability they would require to meet at some centre, doubtless Wellington, tq go into the whole questibn, and he repeated that he believed .it would take a whole session to deal with the measure., At the present hibm'erit he did not think it was desirable that they should attempt to. divert puhlic opinion from the burning questions already be : fore them by circulating a measure' which it would not be possible for members to consider before the general election. The. measure was a. far-reaching one and very comprehensive, and* ought to be dealt with calmly and dispassionately, both by members of Parliament and members of local, > bodies, free from the turmdil of the -general 'elections, and for that reason he proposed to wait until the elections were over before: cir-. culating the- Bill' arid to have ifc.'_htr.o; duced ,- next session. Local govei'nment iri New Zealand required to be carried out upon an entirely different basis to anything we had taken up to now, if it was going to be made as effective as was contemplated by the Bill. After cai'efiiliy, considering the whole matter he was persuaded that tlie- right thing to do was to circulate the Bill after the election, when the country would be free from party strife, with a view^ to .having a comprehensive system of local government placed upon the statute book.