DOMINION CONFERENCE POSTPONED

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24898, 11 June 1946, Page 2

DOMINION CONFERENCE POSTPONED

- N.Z. COUNTIES* ASSOCIATION From Our Own Reporter GERALDINE, Junp 10, Because no finality has been reached with the Government about relief •from hospital; levies, the annual Dominion conference of the New Zealand Counties’ Association has been postponed. “The president very much regrets that nothing has 60 IST been accomplished to alleviate the position on account dr his Wt being able tq have a conference ; with the Prime Minister,” stated a letter received from the Counties’ Association by the GeraL* dine County Couneil to-day. The counties would have gathered from an earlier letter explaining the difficulty the president had had in meeting fhe Prime Minister that the position with regard to the implementation of the Parliamentary report was most unsatisfactory, said a second letter. The Iqtter aqqed that when the emergency committee met to discuss the situation it had been unanimously decided to recommend a postponement of the conference until a meeting with the Prime Minister had eventuated. Until the Prime Minister had met representatives of the Municipal Association and the Counties’ Association and an indication of Government policy was obtained, ‘nothing helpful could be expected. Everything possible was being done to arrange a meeting. Members were very conscious of the urgency for action in connexion with hospital matters, and it was hardly necessary to emphasise that the position with regard to local bodies had never been so grave, and the association must be most careful not to complicate the issue by precipitate action, said the letter, Counties could rest assured that the conference would be arranged at the earliest opportunity.