A ROYAL COMMISSION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 69, Issue 7, 2 May 1944, Page 5

A ROYAL COMMISSION

COUNTY COUNCIL'S SUGGESTION RECENT POLLS AMENDMENT v As a result of the letter received from the Oroua County Council urging direct action by way of a universal refusal on the part of farmers to pay either their Income Tax or Hospital levy, to enforce the withdrawal of the recently passed: Elections and! Polls; Amendment Act,, the Whakatane County Council! has replied in the following terms: — The Whakatane County Council views with alarm the Government's policy which makes for the enactment of legislation, which vitally affects local body organisations, without firstly consulting each organisations. Under such policy the Government has placed on the statute book the Local Elections and Polls Amendment. Act 1944 and in the opinion of the Whakatane County Council in soi acting, the. Government has cast an undeserved reflection! on all members of local authorities who give gratuitous service in their respective districts and who are capable and willing to state the wants and needs of the. residents of their districts. However, the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Act is now on the statute book and having regard to this fact, the Council yesterday unanimously carried the following resolution: — "That as now the Government has imposed on the Counties an electors universal franchise that County Councils be urgently requested to petition the Government to enact legislation which . will provide that all local bod'y funds will be subscribed fromi sources other than rates on:'land so that all electors will shoulder the financial responsibility for providing the funds which all electors under a universal franchise will administer —that county electors consider so important a matter as investigating and' reporting on local body adminitration in all phases should! not be deputed to a Parliamentary Committee but to a Royal Com- ' mission, which commission would at least have the confidence of the electors and which commission would 1 not have a political bias."

The Whakatane County Council; asks all counties to represent to the Government and. to their local members of parliament, the matters mentioned in the above resolution. In the Whakatane County Council's opinion it is only logical that if residents are to have a say in the administration of local body funds, such residents should, on an equitable basis with ratepayers, provide such funds. Furthermore, on the matter of the parliamentary committee, which j committee comprises eight Government and six Opposition members, j and which committee has been ap-i pointed to enquire into and report | on all phases of the. local government system, the Whakatane County Council is emphatic that a committee which comprises a majority of members of a Government which forced the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Act through the House does not have the confidence of the great majority of county electojs. In, any case such an important matter should be outside any possibility of political bias, and for this reason alone a Royal Commission is the only satisfactory tribunal. The wholehearted united respectful request of all county councils to the Government should achieve this. In the event of failure, then with reluctance we will be obliged. to consider action along the lines labour unions have repeatedly successfully used in this country during the present emergency.