LOCAL BODY AMALGAMATION.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 32, 1 November 1937, Page 6

LOCAL BODY AMALGAMATION.

Ihe Local Government (Amalgamation Schemes) Bill submitted last week to the House of Representatives by the Minister of Internal Affairs does not seem to differ in any material way from the Bill which he circulated among local bodies at the close of last session. Thus what was said then with respect to the measure still applies. Since then, it is understood from him, Mr Parry has discussed the provisions of the Bill with local body representatives throughout the Dominion It would seem, howevfer, that, if any suggestions for its amendment were submitted to him — and °it can hardly be thought that there were none — they have fallen on deaf ears, so we have the Bill standing practically as it was when first lssued. In particular it has to be noted that, though Mr Parry s colleague, the Minister of Public Works, only quite recently gave aSsurance that the objectionable comjpulsory clau£)es of the Bill were to dropped, they still appear and in much the same form as in the original draft. ^ Under them the Minister of Interhal Affairs is clothed with very much the same dictatorial powers as have been conferred upon the Minister of Transport under the Transport Licftnsing Amendment Act and upon the Minister of Industries and Commerce under the Industrial Efficiency Act. In each case the final word lies with the Minister concerned, and from his solitary say-so there is no appeai'. So those affected have just to sit down under it until we get a Government that will have some little more regard for ipdividual rights, ■ whether they be of persons, companies or corporate bodies. This, of course, is only in keeping with the whole of the Labour Party's Iegislative schemes, the watchword running through them all being compulsion at unassailable ministerial dictation — cer* ' tainly a queer form of democratic government. Italy and Germany have each a single self-constituted big dictator. New Zealand, "showing the world," has got a dozen or so of little ones, each bent on the arbitrary exercise of the "little brief authority" in which he is dressed. The Bill certainly gives the local bodies the option of framing amalgamation plans of their own^ and submitting them to the Minister, but, failing their taking advantage of this gracious privilege within a specified time, then the Minister can himself prepare an amalgamation scheme according to his own personal ideas. It is then entirely optional with him, as in the case of a voluntary scheme, to submit it for j consideration by a commission appointed by himself, but on i the other hand, it is quite open for him to dispense with the , advisory services of a commission and, after hearing objections, decide the matter entirely on his own re'sponsibility. That, at any rate, is a layman's reading of the Bill, and seems to be the generally accepted interpretation of its sometimes rather involved construction. Apart from this entirely objectionable element of ministerial dictatorship, the Bill is fairly well devised for achieving the purpose that, is in view — the reduction of the altogether excessive number of local bodies with which the country is burdened. For many years now it has been widely recognised that in this respect the Dominon is very much overdone, and the present Government is to be congratulated on taking steps to remedy an undoubted disadvantage with regard to which we have hitherto had nothing much more than inconclusive discussion. It may even be conceded that some measure of compulsory power should be "established, more especially with xespect to minor bodies exercising only very limited jurisdiction. But it certainly does not conform with the generally accepted ideas of right and justice that a single Minister of the Crown should 5e in a position to extinguish local bodies out of hand when and as he wills. That, the great majority will agree, should be ihe, function of some properly constituted and completely independent judicial tribunal under no suspicion of either political, personal or local influence. But that is not the way of our Labour Government, which would seem to arrogate to itself and its ministers, the sole competence for judgment on matters of the most vital importance to the communnity. They have evidently come to regard themselvgs as suddenly endowed with all the wisdom of modern Solomons or Solons, fully qualified to lay down the law and to. enforce it in the most arbitrary way. Unfortunately the people of the country, who have for so long known them individually in quite other guises, cannot fall in with this so flattering self-esti-mation.