MUNICIPAL LAW

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 12

MUNICIPAL LAW

ELECTIONS IN MAY AMENDMENTS TO ACT (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Anomalies which have disqualified many competent business men from serving on local bodies will be lessened if the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill, introduced to-day, become law. It is now proposed that a member of a council may be authorised to accept a contract with a council up to £lO, or three contracts totalling £25, which may be extended to £SO at the discretion of the Audit Department. According to the amendment, municipal voters, on residential qualification, will have their names deleted from the roll if they fail to record votes. The elections of mayors and councils w.ill take place on the first Wednesday in May, instead of the last Wednesday in April, as hitherto. In administration councils are given close control over dance halls and places of entertainment for which licences may be withheld or cancelled as a penalty for a licensee’s bad conduct.

Among 50-odd causes in the Bill are provisions for defining residential and business zones; for profit and loss accounts to be shown with respect to municipal trading undertakings; and for relief from rating as desired by many semi-urban areas at the present time, this relief to apply to holdings over three acres used solely for farming, and not likely to be required for building within a reasonable time.