LOCAL BODY SYSTEM

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3782, 15 July 1936, Page 5

LOCAL BODY SYSTEM

RATEPAYERS’ MONEY SQUANDERED. CASE FOR AMALGAMATION. Advantages of the amalgamation of local bodies were referred to by the Minister ot Internal Affairs, Hon. W. E. Parry, in an interview last Saturday. The high cost of the management of local affairs by several separate governing bodies in towns and boroughs was mentioned by Mr Parry, who also cited cases ot boroughs in which litigation had taken place costing the ratepayers large sums of money. “The more I go into the question,” said Mr Parry, “the more glaring do examples appear before me illustrating the soundness ot any step taken to bring about the amalgamation of our local bodies. Almost daily notable circumstances come to light, all showing the high cost —sometimes caused by duplicating authority—of the administration of the people’s local affairs. “One or two recent events—all subject to legal action—have been told to me by visiting mayors of progressive boroughs of the Dominion. They have, with convincing facts, shown me how the councils’ exchequers would have been saved large expenditure, not only in court proceedings, but in other directions as well, if there had been unification of the bod ies—if there had been but one body controlling the local affairs. Many of these squabbles, they tell me, could have been satisfactorily adjusted round the council table, but with the participation of other bodies in thesn squabbles—and they had the right within their functions to participate —there was little hope of a settlement outside ot a court judgment. I am sure the people of New Zealand—and no doubt, the local bodies themselves —will see the wisdom in the amalgamation proposals now being prepared.”