MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3781, 19 April 1928, Page 2

MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE.

LOCAL DELEGATES REPORT TO COUNCIL.

A comprehensive report was presented to Monday’s Borough Council meeting by the Mayor (Mr. M. E. Perreau) and Town Clerk (Mr. Wm. Trueman), who represented the local Borough Council at the annual municipal conference held at Nelson, last month.'

The various remits were touched upon, 79 of the 141 submitted being carried and which hav& already appeared in the port concluded with the following comment: —

“We would like, in conclusion, to refer to the remarks made by Cr. H. D. Bennett of the Wellington City Council after the conference, that he did not think these conferences of much benefit. No \doubt the Wellington City Council with its highly paid and efficient legal, engineering and other technical staff, situated almost at Parliament’s front door-step does not derive much benefit from such a conference. It is an easy matter for Wellington City with its Mayor and the five Wellington M.P’s. to wait on Cabinet Ministers and have their requirements attended to in the form of ‘Enabling or Empowering Acts.’ Smaller boroughs, however, to obtain anything at all find it very necessary to get together at least once a year, standardise their requirements and then approach the Government. Although refusals are often met with it is only persistent clamouring which gains the day for smaller towns whereas influence secures the city’s need with a minimum effort. “The remits approved by the conference were the result of much careful thought and deliberation. If passed into law considerable benefits would ensue and the onerous task of local government considerably lightened thereby.”