COMMISSION ENDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 674, 28 May 1929, Page 7

COMMISSION ENDS

HEARING OF MT. ROSKILL PETITION BOARD OR BOROUGH? "The move for the formation of a borough in Mount Roakill is a bold and brazen application to perpetuate the blunder of the inclusion of rural lands in municipal areas.” Thus said Mr. G. P. Finlay, representing the South Roskill Ratepayers’ Association yesterday at the sitting or the commission set up to inquire into and report on the petition that has been made by Mount Roskill residents asking that the control of > the district be vested in a borough council instead of a road board as at present. T £ e commission consisted of Mr. L. C. Cutten, S.M., chairman, Mr. O. N. Campbell, commissioner of Crown lands, and Mr. C. W. Chilcott, district valuer at Auckland. Mr. V. R. Meredith appeared for the Mount Roskill Road Board, and Mr. Finlay and Mr. Milne for the Roskill South Ratepayers’ Association. The commission concluded its sittings yesterday afternoon and reserved its finding. Mr. Finlay said that the question was not one of far flung areas or sparse population, but of community of interest. It was impossible he said, to weld together incompatibles, and that was the test of suitability. It was absurd to suggest, stated counsel, that Roskill South was fitted for borough control. It was best fitted for incorporation into a larger community. Mr. Finlay concluded by suggesting that the commission should send the applicants for a borough home to think again. Mr. V. R. Meredith said that there were many reasons for the desirability of municipal control. The district had ample population, and the closeness of the settlement made it obvious that the old machinery of the Road Board Act was not now applicable.

He submitted that no evidence had been produced to indicate that the district was unsuitable for municipal control.