GARDEN PLACE HILL

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19565, 2 May 1935, Page 9

GARDEN PLACE HILL

QUESTION OF REMOVAL. LOCAL LEGISLATION BILL. OFFICIALS’ EXPLANATION. The following correspondence on the Garden Place Hill removal question’ has been handed to us lor publl- " cation:— . Responsibility Claimed. “Hamilton, April 20, 1035. Hie Worship the Mayor, Hamilton. Dear Sir,—Our attention has been drawn to the fact that certain candidates for the next municipal elections are endeavouring to place the responsibility on you and the present counoll for the fact that when the clauses with reference to Garden Place were submitted for the Local Legislation Bill In 1933 they contained no reference to obtaining thp consent of the ratepayers or the Local Government Loans Board. It is not our desire to be concerned In local politics; but we qannot allow you or the present council to accept •this responsibility, which la entirely QUr ovvip The council’s instructions to us were clear that the consent of the ratepayers’and the Local Government Loans Board had to be preserved, In our opinion, any reference to tho consent of the ratepayers or the Local Government Loans Board in •'these ■ clauses was neither necessary nor desirable, and we so advised the council. In fact, the Local Bill which we have since drawn, and .which has been submitted to the Department of Internal Affairs, cqntain-s no such reference. In our opinion, had the •clauses as drawn, been included in the •Local Legislation Act in 1933 the con-sent-of the ratepayers would still have had to be obtained, and also the consent of- the Local Government Loans Board. - The" Local Bodies Loans Act, 1926, makes It obligatory on a local authority to obtain the consent of the ratepayers to a loan such as would be required in this case, unless expressly exempted by some Act The Local Government Loans Board Act, 1926, makes it obligatory on a local aulhorlly*to obtain the consent of the Governor-in-Gouncil before raising a loan such as would be required In this case, unless specially exempted by some Act. In our opinion, if the clauses proposed for ‘ the Local Legislation Bill In 1933 did not exempt the council from the provisions of the Local Bodies Loans Act and the Local Government,. Loans Board Act, these two Acts would have had to be complied with before a loan ' could be raised, to purchase or, other- . wise acquire the lands necessary for • the Garden Place scheme. We alone are responsible for the omission of any ’• reference to the consent of the ratepayers and the. Local Government Loans Board in the clauses submitted for the Local Legislation Bill In 1933, and we cannot allow anyone else to ‘ take a responsibility which is entirely ' our own.—Yours truly, Swarbrick and • Swarbrick.” Compensation tp Owne|> (i ., ul , ! *' lU “The ttarffilton ’llorough ’’Council, ■Borough Engineer’s''Office, Hamilton,. ■ May I,' 1935. His Worship, the Mayor, Hamilton. Dear Sir,—My attention -has "been "'drawn to a statement made by Cr. Lafferty in a manifesto he has recently issued that he has a copy of a plan showing the amounts that were to be paid to owners of property within the area of the Garden Place scheme If it went through. I have to advise that the plan referred to Is a copy of the plan used by Messrs George Boyes, S. E. Valle and the late Jacob Wright when they Were Investigating the Garden Place scheme on behalf of the council. The figures on the plan are the Government valuations, copied from the " rate book, and were put on for the ' purpose of enabling the -above-men-tioned committee to arrive at some idea of tho value of the property involved. Mr Lafferty was in my office one day and saw the plan with these figures on. He asked what the figures were, and I told’ him they were the Government valuations of the properties and the purpose for which they were on the plan. He requested a copy, and I saw no harm in his having same.—Yours faithfully, R, Worley, ; Borough Engineer.”