NORMANBY TOWN ROLL

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1934, Page 7

NORMANBY TOWN ROLL

PETITION FOR MERGER ALLEGATIONS BY RESIDENTS. FOURTEEN WISH TO WITHDRAW. COUNTY COUNCIL DISCUSSION. An allegation that the name of a man dead for 25 years had been added to the valuation roll of the Normanby Town Board district was made when a petition was presented to the Hawera County Council on Saturday by 14 persons, ratepayers of the district, asking that their names be erased from a petition which has been circulating _in the board area for some time praying for the merging of the area with the county council. Other allegations were made by councillors in a discussion which developed on the petition. It was alleged that, owing to the statutory limitation on the time in which the * petition could be presented, one party was working to have the petition held up till the time limit expired. •* Dated October 29, the petition reads: “We, the undersigned ratepayers of the Normanby town district, whose signatures appear on a petition of ratepayers praying that the Normanby town district be merged into the Hawera county, do hereby request that our said signatures be erased from such petition. At the time of signing we were not fully conversant with the question, and we now recognise that our action in signing was hasty and ill-considered. Following full consideration of all aspects of the rase, we do not wish to support the merging petition.” The signatories are Donald Robertson, C. J. Anderson, Mary E. Young, David Frei, S. Minhinnick, Frank Binns, V. Bunting, Teno Annie Rio, Te One Walden, G. J. F. Dowman, Rangiao Walden, James Minhinnick and Arthur E. McEwen. One other, E. J. Mcßeth, had his name removed during the council meeting on Saturday. The witnessing, with one .exception, when H. D. Hughes witnessed a signature, was all done by Don Stewart. Two signatories made marks in place of signatures. Both Messrs. Stewart and Hughes vouched for the truth of the signatures before Mr. John S. Murray, J.P. CONDITIONS OF PETITION. In an explanation of the petition the county clerk, Mr. J. W. Harding, said the petition desiring merger with the county was supposed to contain not fewer than half the ratepayers of the district owning property valued at not less than half the total value of the property in the area. There were about 134 names on the valuation roll, and 73 signatures were on a petition presented to a town board meeting on October 29. “The clerk definitely refused to consider it,” said Mr. Harding. “He has since received advice from the board s solicitor to do the necessary checking up.. A meeting of the board was held last Monday, and it is alleged that alterations were made in the roll.” Procedure was laid down, continued Mr. Harding, how, why and when the names on the roll might be altered. Although the council was a ratepayer of the Normanby town district, it had taken no part in the controversy, said the chairman, Cr. J. B. Murdoch. The county had always held aloof and left the Normanby people to work out thenown fate, but it might be necessary for action to be taken. It was possible a commission might be appointed to acquire a knowledge of the position. Complaint regarding 18 names was made by Mr. C. J. Preston. He alleged that one name on the roll was that of a person dead 25 years. Explaining that, by statute, it was necessary for the petition to be presented within 12 months of the first signature, in this case, last February, Mr. Harding said it was possible that the board could get into debt for the full amount of its revenue and then go to the county.

Information on the exact position would have to be conveyed to the ratepayers, said Cr. T. A. Winks. Before the petition was presented to the council it would have to be advertised for four weeks, and the time was getting short. “To be in order,” said Mr. Harding, "the petition will have to be presented to the council in January, presumably at the meeting on January 19. “We decided some months ago to adopt a neutral attitude,” said the chairman, “and I see no reason why we should change that attitude.”