LOCAL BODY MERGERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 135, 9 June 1937, Page 7

LOCAL BODY MERGERS

MINISTERS' VIEWS

STATEMENT BY MR. SEMPLE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, June 8.

"There is no difference whatever between the view of the Minister of Internal Affairs and my view on county amalgamation," said the Minister of Public (the Hon. R. Semple) today, in asserting that a wrong impression had been made by a- recent Press Association report.

"I am not accusing anyone of wilful misrepresentation, but the Press Association message does not convey in full the statement that I made. There has been either a misrepresentation or a misunderstanding of what I said about the amalgamation of counties. The message left the impression that Mr. Parry is at variance with me—, that he gives one interpretation to the Bill and that I give another. That is positively incorrect"

Mr. Semple said that, answering a question in the North Island about whether the Counties Amalgamation Bill contained a compulsory clause, he had said that the original Bill contained such a clause, but that it was omitted from the Bill in its present form. He had said that the Government considered it better for counties to agree to amalgamation voluntarily rather than that they should be forced to do so.

"Mr.; Parry has met local bodies all over New Zealand, and has explained to them his policy—that now is the time for amalgamation, but that the Government would prefer it to be undertaken voluntarily. I said, too, that amalgamation was necessary and inevitable, that a commission had been appointed to tak* evidence on the advisability of amalgamation, and'that future action, compulsory or otherwise, would be based on the findings of the commission. There is no difference whatever between Mr. Parry's view and mine."