LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7, 6 May 1912, Page 5

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

NEW BILL CONSIDERED. While not wholly condemning the Local Government Bill, there would be very_ little left of it, if the instructions given to tho Stratford County Council’s representative could be carried into effect by the delegates at the forthcoming Conference. On Saturday tho Council gave the Bill a thorough and minute examination, with the result that they condemn either wholly or part'ally, nearly fifty of tho four hundred odd clauses. The delegate was instructed to advocate a system of graduated subsidies; he will oppose, on the grounds that this centralisation is not in tho host interests of the people, the setting up of Provincial Councils to take tho place of Educat : on, Hospital, and other Boards; and he will set his face against any measure giving power to place upon the ratepayers such a burden as would be entailed if the proposed new authority went to tho extreme limit of its’ rating powers—namely, one shilling in the £. Tho Council sympathised with the resolution passed by the New Plymouth Harbour Board, that every lass of public bodies should have separate representation, and has notified tie Minister to that effect.