MUNICIPAL CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 62, 14 March 1934, Page 10

MUNICIPAL CONTROL

DOMINION CONFERENCE

REMITS CONSIDERED

WIDE RANGE OF TOPICS

The twenty-fourth conference of the Municipal Association of New Zealand was opened in tho Conceit Chamber, Town Hall, this morning by tho Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes). Practically every local body affiliated with the association is represented, the floor of the Concert Chamber being fully taken up by the seating and table accommodation./ The Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop), as president of tho association, welcomed the Prime Minister and delegates, and remarked that it was now thirteen years since a municipal conference was held in Wellington. Mr. Hislop read an apology for absence from the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. J. A. Young), who had expressed his good wishes for the success of the conference. Apart from the' actual business of the conference, said Mr. Hislop, he hoped that delegates and their wives would find much to interest them in the city. In its tramway, electricity, and milk departments Wellington took particular pride. He mentioned that several clubs and other institutions had extended their facilities to delegates and their wives. Mr. Forbes's remarks are published under separate headings. The conference has fifty remits for consideration, and commenced its work without delay. ELECTRICITY SUPPLY. A remit from Timaru that the Electric Power Boards Act should be amended so as to give a supply authority the right to supply electricity to any area that at any time may be placed within its boundaries, on compensation being paid to the Power Board, was referred to tho executive for further consideration. Mr. Hislop said that the opinion of the association's solicitor was that the difficulties were such that it was doubtful whether the proposal would result in any advantage to municipalities. Support was given a proposal from Mount Albert that the Motor Vehicles Act should be amended in the direction of relieving local authorities from the obligation of erecting signs .at level crossings, and that it should be provided that the responsibility for the erection of such signs should rest on tho Railway Department. The desire of the Auckland City Council that the charge of Is for electors' rolls should bo increased to allow of the actual cost being recouped (up to a maximum of 15s) was not sufficiently supported to be carried. On a division a remit from Martinborough regarding the discontinuance of water supply on the failure of property owners to pay the total amount of all rates for which he is liable was lost. HIGHWAYS AND STREETS. Agreement was expressed with the principle that the Municipal Corporations Act should be amended to provide that in all cases of the subdivision" of sections on street corners, the corporation may require that the corner (not exceeding loft on each frontage) shall be dedicated without compensation for i the purpose of improving the safcty_ of the street or to comply with the principles of town planning. It was considered that it would be of no avail to ask, as was suggested by the Birkenhead Borough Council, that tho Main Highways Board should' assist financially in tho better lighting ob main highways passing through local body areas. The Tauranga Borough Council proposed that all boroughs and town boards should bo exempt from all liability through accidents arising through any tree or shrub planted or beautifying enclosure placed on roads for beautifying purposes provided that they had J been planted by tho authority of the council or town board. Tho association's solicitor said that there was a danger in the proposal, but, he suggested, local bodies could protect themselves by confining their planting to footways. Mr. Hislop remarked that in the case of Fitzherbert Terrace the area planted had been declared a footway. It was decided that tho executive should go into tho question further, with a view of endeavouring to find a means of protecting local bodies which have planted roads and streets. Without discussion, the conference supported a remit from Timaru that wherever hoardings are erected on Government property within a - borough, the contents of which are legible from any point outsido Government property, the hoarding fees prescribed by the local body should be paid and the., hoardings should be subject to the local body bylaw.