TO JOIN OR NOT?

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 13

TO JOIN OR NOT?

ROSKILL AND CITY OPPOSITION TO PROPOSAL ALTHOUGH the number of signatures to the petition for the amalgamation of Mount Roskill with the city are more than those required, opposition to the proposal is evinced by certain ratepayers in the district. At a representative meeting, presided over by Mr. P. J. Sefton, last evening, the general opinion was that the proposal was an insult to the intelligence of the ratepayers to ask them to revert to capital value, or rental, rating, within a few months of the carrying of unimproved values, and before the new system had been brought into force. It was also considered that the trouble among the Road Board members was being used by capital-value enthusiasts to prevent the will of the people from becoming law. A member of the meeting spoke of the great stress that was being laid on the transport problem, and the city’s great power in that direction. The objection of another ratepayer was to the unconditional joining up with the city when they could not be informed of the benefits to expect. He commented on the reluctance of Mount Eden, Newmarket, Mount Albert, One Tree Hill and Ellerslie to join the city. It was unanimously decided to oppose strongly any attempt to join the city until ratting on unimproved values had been tried for at least three years. Further meetings are to be held within the next few weeks and committees are being formed to work against the proposal.