ENCOURAGING SIGNS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 6

ENCOURAGING SIGNS

PROGRESS OF SOUTH ISLAND P.A. INVERCARGILL, Dec. 3. The fifth annual conference of South Island local bodies opened this morning. There was a large and representative attendance of delegates from all parts of the island. The president, Mr E. H. Andrews, Mayor of Christchurch, said he believed that it was to some extent due to the formation of the association that the tide had turned and that the South Island was coming back into its own. It was encouraging, he said, to find the South Island attracting many people. The association was concerned about the trend of immigration. It seemed that the majority of immigrants were being - placed in the North Island.

The Mayor of Invercargill, Mr A. Wachner, welcomed the delegates. He congratulated the president on his impartiality, and the conference for its far-seeing remits for the ’ benefit of the South Island as a whole.

Mr J. R. Hanan, M.P. for Invercargill, also extended a welcome. Mr Hanan said he deplored the whittling away of the powers of local bodies. The process had been going on for possibly 30 years. Centralisation, he declared, was the enemy of democracy. “ That is what you must fight, and we South Island members must fight as well,” said Mr Hanan. Mr T. F. Doyle, a member of the Legislative Council, said the South Island, apd Southland in particular, could be the power house of New Zealand. The reason why the North Island was twice as heavily populated as the South Island could be a subject of investigation by the conference. Mr Andrews, in his presidential address at the first business session, enumerated the more important activities of the association in the past year, particularly in regard to air services, immigration, tourist traffic, and publicity.

Officers elected were: president, Mr Andrews; vice-president, Mr D. C.

Cameron, Mayor of Dunedin; executive —Messrs N. Clarke (Christchurch city), A. T. Newman (Southland boroughs), E. K. Sim (Southland counties), D. H. Cockburn (Otago counties), J. F. Cooney (Otago boroughs). E. C. Bathurst (Canterbury boroughs), F. W. Freeman (Canterbury counties), F. F. Boustridge (West Coast boroughs), M. Wallace (Westland counties), J. A. Harley (Nelson city). W. B. Taverner (Dunedin city), A. E, S. Hanan (Timaru), W. S. McGibbon (Harbour Boards) t R. T. McMillan (Power Boards), J. G. Jobberns (Catchment Boards), A. Wachner (Invercargill); treasurer, Mr H. S. Feast (Christchurch), secretary, Mr F. G. K. Gilchrist (Christchurch); auditor, Mr J. J. Niven.