MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19882, 8 March 1939, Page 6

MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION

CONFERENCE OPENS

ADDRESS BY MINISTER

(IVr Press Association.) DUNEDIN, this day

The 291 h conference of tiie New Zealand Municipal Association opened this morning under the presidency of Mr. T. Jordan, Masterton. The Minister of Internal Affairs, lh<> Hon. W. E. Parry, was present and the delegates were welcomed by the Mayor.

Mr. Parry, citing tiie Municipal Corporations Act of last year as evidence of the desire of the Government to implement the association's remits, stated that other remits were dealt with in other Acts last session. He thought he had ground for complaint, however, concerning the action of some borough councils. The Government must assume that the conference had given final consideration and that the remits forwarded represented tiie considered judgment of the Municipal Association; in other words, finality, but in the present order paper he noticed remits aiming to secure amendments to the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act of last session. He did not wish to block the legitimate desires of the conference, but he thought that unless they were urgent matters which the conference had not thought of before, the Act passed should be left fori a while to give time for the legislation to work itself out.

Mi - . Jordan, replying, complimented the Minister on the start made with town planning. The hope of the conference was to be regarded as the Government’s junior partner.

PLANNED DEVELOPMENT

FITNESS CAMPAIGN

AIM OF GOVERNMENT

(for Press Association.) DUNEDIN, this day. In the course of his address to the delegates attending the Municipal Association conference, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, while complimenting the local committee on the success of Fitness Week, stated that such sporadic ellorts, while creating interest, were not wholly satisfactory.

Public interest had now to be capitalised so that they could build on tiie foundation laid, he said. There were leaders available who needed only the encouragement and technical guidance for the giving of which the Government had created a special section. The Government was not going to be led into a series of disconnected projects but must develop a plan providing for the present and future for which reason a survey was .being made of district facilities and needs.