MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 941, 14 July 1903, Page 3

MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION.

Per Press Association, ' Wellington) last night. The Executive Committee of the Municipal Association met this morning, and passed a number of resolutions. The present provision of .the Public Health Aot, 1900, Compelling boroughs aDd other local bodies to accept liability to provide hospitals for infectious eases, was declared to be unsatisfactory, and the Government are to be asked to place the responsibility on the Hospital and Charitable. Aid Boards. The following remits from affiliated bodies were adopted ."—That balance sheets be made up and audited halfyearly ; that the advertising of balancesheets and preambles to statutory notices be dispensed with ; that a transfer from separate accounts-to the general account be permitted of proportional parts of the cost of office supervision, of clerical work, etc.; that the Regulation of Loool Elections Aot, 1876, be brought up to date ; that the section of the Municipal Corporations Aot of 1900 (316), making Borough Councils liable for compensation for uninsured or insufficiently insured property be repealed ; that section 35 of the Municipal Corporations Aot of 1886 be restored, so as to give local bodies rating power over foreshores ; that Borough Council have power to acquire compulsorily gasworks held by private companies ; that Hospital Boards be empowered to expend money on land and buildings. Later.—The principal other resolutions oarried at the Municipal Conference were that the cost of the establishment and maintenance of fire brigades be borne equally by-the Government, firo insurance companies, and local bodies, that better provision be made for the collection of sates from Native land-owners, that the Public Works Act be amended so as to permit the taking of land for recreation purposes, that section of Public Works Aot of 1901 providing compensation for street dedication bo repealed, that section 50 of the Municipal Corporation Act,of 1900 be amended so as to define the qualification of , councillors of an undivided, borough,* as in the cases •of Greater Christchurch and Greater Wellington, that the same Act be amended so as to provide that in municipalising any services for a'oity provision should be made for sums to be sot asido for sinking funds and plant depreciation somewhat upon the lines required by the British Board of Trade, that municipal councils should have some powsr over oxpensesin connection with polls, otc,, for licensing elections, that'in order to prevent the possibility of voters so disposed befog able to vote at more than one booth, either that all voting should ho done at one set Of booths divided alphabetically or that electors’ rights should bo issued and stamped on presentation, that the law should be amended to provido that all powers, etc.; given by a private or local Act to any borough shall be exoroisable by a corporation of the united borough when union has taken place.