CITIES AND BOROUGHS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 36, 13 February 1933, Page 8

CITIES AND BOROUGHS

MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE

OUTLINE OF ORDER PAPER

The annual conference of the Municipal Association (the twenty-third conference) -will be held at Eotorua, commencing on March 2. The order paper is not as long as in some previous years, nor are the proposals embodied in the 89 remits particularly arresting. There is no mention on the printed order paper of the vital question of the effect of high exchange upon local body loan finance, but no doubt the conference will discuss this new problem as one of the main topics. The Wellington City Council is sending forward a big batch of remits, several oi which have been" discussed at meetings of the council during the year. It is suggested that authority should be granted to give councils direct representation on hospital boards. There are several remits dealing with loans accounts .and loans legislation. Wellington is recommending that legislation should be enacted to the effect that all debentures issued" by local authorities should be binding on the local body once they are sealed' by the local body and delivered to any purchaser. ' ' l '■

Timaru desires to . see the Local Bodies' Loans' Act amended to enable local bodies to increase, the annual amount of sinking funds, if circumstances make that desirable, oven though a slight increase in- rate burden may be necessary. - ■ Eastbourne has forwarded the following remit: "That the Government be urged to give consideration in the near future to a scheme for the rearrangement of local body finance with a view of consolidating the various local authorities loan indebtdedness within New Zealand and the conversion of same." •.--..■

The executive of the association suggests that the conference should consider the advisability of legislation being obtained to enable local bodies to issue subscribed stock in London

HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES At the last meeting of the I City Council mentino was made of the liability of the Fire Board, under the amended regulations, for heavy traffic fees. The New Brighton Borough Council is referring the same matter to the conference, stating in a note attached to its remit, that it is considered that the non-exemption of fire brigades from the payment of heavy traffic fees inflicts a distinct hardship upon.many local bodies in the Dominion. The Motor Vehicles Act, 1924 exempted fire engines from the payment of annual licence fees', but the amending Act of 1927 omits this exemption.

Gisborne wishes to see local bodies running their own lorries and buses withm their own boundaries exempted from paying the-heavy traffic fees thereon. ' . ' ■ i

The Auckland Transport Board asks that tramway authorities should be given a direct allocation from the petrol tax fund to recompense them for their maintenance of a portion of the road surface between and on either side "of their tram rails. .

The "Wellington Council makes this proposal:—"Watefmains on private property.—That power be granted .to local authorities to lay watermains through private properties without the consent of the owner of the property. Local authorities should have tho same right in respect of watermains as they have in respect of drains. Under the present law the local body has to take the whole of the land on which the is'proposed to be situate. This causes unnecessary expense and involves costly disputes." BYLAWS AND RATING. There are several remits dealing with hoardings, proposals for tightening up the issue of licences to hawkers and itinerant traders, and various suggestions regarding bylaw improvement. Bluff and Gisborne suggest that the association should, frame model bylaws to place all districts on a similar"footing, with of course, variations called for by special 'circumstances.. The heavy cost of each borough council framing its own bylaws would thus begreatly reduced. One Tree' Hill wants to see all cycles registered, at a fee of one shilling. Eating Act remits figure largely on the order' paper, and the stand taken by the Government that Crown properties are free from rates is certain to be discussed. A Timaru remit is typical: "That Government propertiesbe not exempt from rating, more particularly where Government Departments acquire houses for the purpose of letting them to their own officers." A note attached states: "We have recently received a letter from the Chief Postmaster, Timaru, pointing out that three private residences which happen to be the property of their Department are not subject to rates. They apparently rely on the interpretation of Section 2 of the Rating Act, to the effect that a weekly or monthly tenant was not an occupier within the meaning of the section." •

There are also proposals on the old subject of the" refund of rates paid in error, suggestions for the collection of rates at quarterly and half-yearly intervals, and variations of the 10 per cent, penalty for late payment; Ellerslie proposes that town board chairmen should be entitled to an honorarium,: not exceeding £50 per annum. NEW TOWN PLANNING ACT. . _ Th.c executive of the association considers that a : new Town Planning Act is required, in the following remit:— i-'That the present Town Planning Act is unsatisfactory, and that a new Bill be brought down to confprm with the views of the Town Planning Board and to be consistent with the English Act, such Bill to contain adequate provisions as to betterment and , raising special order loans for payment/of compensation."

In the opinion of the Timaru Borough _ Council yearly conferences of the association are unnecessary, and a conference at intervals of two years would be of greater value; further, it is suggested that the.meetings should be held alternately at Wellington and Christchurch, as less costly than at such "inaccessible places" as Invercargill and_ Eotorua. It does not believe that business and pleasure can be profitably combined. '