LOCAL BODY TRADE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4947, 5 March 1926, Page 2

LOCAL BODY TRADE.

REMITS TO CONFERENCE.

FOR CONSIDERATION BY COUNCIL.

At the meeting of the Ohinemuri County Council yesterday the following resolutions, which were forwarded by the Association of Chambers of Commerce Tor the council’s consideration, were read- 1

“That the Conference expresses alarm at the. large and ever-increas-ing indebtedness of local bodies throughout the Dominion,- .and that the Government be urged to inquire into the matter with a view to checking unnecessary borrowing.”

“That the attention of the Minister of Public Works be directed to the desirability of ex,tra precautions, in connection with estimates, of. cost of works proposed by local bodies out of loan money.” “In the opinion of this Coriference the time has arrived to define legitimate local body trading with a view to its proper limitation by legislation and in order to prevent public bodies competing unfairly wiijh .their own ‘ratepayers, as follows : It is recognised that all general utility supplies to the public, such a.s, electricity, water, tramways, drainage, etc., which it is unwise to leave in the'hands of private enterprise, and the profits from which rightly belong to the ratepayers and the consumers or persons supplied, should be controlled by public bodies,; but beyond these it is deemed inadvisable for public bodies; to embark on enterprises which compete with legitimate private trading.”