LOCAL BODY MERGERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19883, 9 March 1939, Page 16

LOCAL BODY MERGERS

GOVERNMENT’S PLANS BILL NEXT SESSION (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, this day. Reference to the Government s intentions with respect to local body amalgamation was made by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, at the Municipal Association conference yesterday. The Parliamentary committee had sat on numerous occasions and had heard evidence from a large number of local authorities and local body associations, said the Minister. As they knew, the committee, in its report to Parliament, generally endorsed the proposals and he hoped that an opportunity would present itself during the next session of Parliament. to bring the bill before the House and have it passed into law. He thought it must be perfectly clear that the bill did not provide tor any revolutionary procedure. It did not in any sense suggest that the Government was going to reorganise local government overnight, but it did make provision for a comprehensive and exhaustive examination of the position in any locality before definite proposals were submitted. Mr. Parry said he felt sure he could count on the continued assistance of the association in the prosecution of his aim by providing for New Zealand the most efficient system of local government possible.