HAURAKI PLAINS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4468, 18 September 1922, Page 2

HAURAKI PLAINS.

THE DRAINAGE AREAS. CONTROL BY COUNTY COUNCIL The objects of the Hauraki Plains Amendment Bill, as explained by the Hon. D. H. Guthrie, Minister for Lands, in moving the second reading are mainly to allow the Hauraki Plains County Council tp take over the control of the lands hitherto controlled by the Government. The County Council is to be given full control and power to collect rates and spend them on the maintenance of the drains. Clause 2, which is the most .important in the Bill, provides that laud which has been paying rates to the Government will pay rates to the local authority. Lands which have not been in occupation for a period of three years will be exempt from rates in order to give the occupants an opportunity to get a start before becoming liable for rates. The lands which have been included in the drainage areas as well as the rating area will be subject to only one rate. The Bill also gives authority to the Crown to sell to the council the wharves and sheds erected in. the area, the price to be fixed by arbitration. There is one condition, which provides that no tolls or fees shall be charged on Government goods passed" ‘ over the wharves. The Minister mentioned that since the County Council had cojne into existence and the people were now willing 'and anxious to manage their own affairs, it was only right that the Government should give them that opportunity. Mr H. Poland (Ohinemuri) generally supported the Bill, but said it was not fair to impose the same rate on people now going on the land as on those who 'had escaped for sp many years. He urfeed the Minister to have the remaining drainage operations carried out mere expeditiously. Support was also given by Mr T. W. Rhodes (Thames), who, however, asked the Minister not to proceed too rapidly with the Bill, to enable the County Council to have time to consider its provisions. The Minister, replying, said he would give the matter of rating mentioned by the member for Ohinemuri full consideration, and promised to delay further consideration of the Bill until next week to allow the local authority to submit suggestions. - The Bill was read a second time. COMMENT. OUTLINING THE BILL. While handing over additional areas of Government land to the Hauraki Plains County Council, it exempts certain lands flram a general rate levied by the County Council. The exemptions will not apply, according to section 2 of Clause 2, to lands reserved as sites for towns or villages, or lands, after, they .have been occupied for a period of not less than three years. No lands will be liable to rates in respect pf a period prior to April Ist, 1923. Clause 3 states that certain land within the Hauraki Drainage District shall be exempt from any rate levied after April Ist, 1923, by the Minister of Lands. This deals with about 960 acres in the Nethertpn district which has been subject to two drainage rates, one to the Department and the other to the Hauraki Drainage Board. Clause 4 specifies that lands become exempt from Government rates on inclusion within a drainage district. Clause 5 provides that the proceeds of rates, levied under the amendment Act, 1911, are to be paid into the Hauraki Plains Settlement Account. Clause 6 gives power to the Gov enrment to sell wharves on the Piakt> River to the Hauraki Plains County Council. The agreement, for sale may provide for payment by instalments extending over 21 years at 5 per cent. No dues, tolls, or fees wpuld be paid by the Crown for the use of the wharves and sheds. THE CLERK’S VIEWS. Interviewed in connection with the above Bill, Mr E. Walton, county, clerk, said that the Council’s policy defined two years ago in connection with the exempted area was that the Department should hand over the administration of areas as and when the roads in those areas were metal- - led by the Department. The Prime Minister himself (when Minister of) Lands) had promised the settlers that the roads would be metal’ed. If the Cbunc.il refused to take over the areas it would be grossly unfair to the parts of the county, at present paying a general rate, yet il was hot desirable to take over the areas without the roads being metalled. "It would not be right to say, as they did say in one report,” continued Mr Walton, “that it was just a ‘machinery provision’ ■which' wa§ being put through with the approval of the Council. It was a case of the Department as the stronger body enforcing its will upon the weaker body.” Speaking in respect to clause 6. which deals with the disposing of Government wharves, Mr Walton said the question was whether' the wharves do not belong virtually to the settlers, seeing that the wharves were built out of the money which; went in development and formed part of the price the settlers paid for their holdings. This was the view o! the Council, which considered that if there was to be a price it should be purely a nominal one.