URBAN AFFAIRS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 March 1939, Page 5

URBAN AFFAIRS

MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE BUSINESS PROGRAMME COMPLETED. MR T. JORDAN RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, March 9. The conference of the Municipal Association of New Zealand was continued today under the chairmanship of the president, Mr T. Jordan, Masterton. The purely business programme of the conference was disposed of this afternoon and the conference will be concluded with a visit to Waipori tomorrow, and a social gathering in the evening. . v

The following remits, amongst others, .were dealt with: — “That, if the present unsatisfactory system of taxation is persisted with, authority be granted to the contributing local authorities for direct representation on the hospital boards.”— Adopted. ■ “That in each borough where there is a tramway undertaking that maintains a portion of -a street, such tramway undertaking shall receive a share of the petrol tax allocated to the local authority within whose boundaries the undertaking is situated.” —Adopted. “That provision be made in the Rating Act, 1925, whereby a ratepayer may consent to a charge for rates being registered as a judgment against his property under the Statutory Land Charges Registration Act, 1928, and that section 3 of the Statutory Land Charges Registration Act be amended accordingly to give such a charge priority.” —Rejected. “That the Government be asked to enact legislation giving general powers to local bodies on similar lines to those contained in the Wellington City (Housing Act, 1938.” —Adopted. “That the whole question of fees under the heavy motor vehicles regulations, 1932, be reviewed and a more equitable basis of distribution as between the various classes of local authorities devised.”—Adopted. THE.NOXIOUS WEEDS ACT. “That the Government be requested so to alter the Noxious Weeds Act that it will be more easy to administer and more effective, and it is suggested that two or three advertisements in local newspapers together with notices placed on local body office doors replace the present method. Also that instructions for the carrying out) of orders for the destruction of weeds, etc., be simplified and less delay allowed in the carrying out of the order.”—Referred to the executive. “That authority be enacted to permit the purchase or acquisition under the Public Works Act or otherwise of strips of land for use as public service ways to give vehicular access to the rear of properties, but not such as to be defined as streets.” —Adopted. “That boroughs having representatives on other constituent local bodies, when these representatives are granted leave for a long period in cases of sickness or when absent from New Zealand, be given power to appoint a deputy till the leave of absence expires.” —Adopted. “That this conference opposes any attempt to remove from the control of municipalities the licensing and regulation of taxi-cabs, and all members of. the association be requested to exercise, if they have not already done so, the powers to regulate the licensing and control of taxi-cabs reposed in them by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1933, section 364 (9), and that members be asked to advise the secretary of the association within three months as to whether or not they have exercised such powers.”—Adopted. ITINERANT VENDORS. On the first day of the conference the following remit presented by One Tree Hill was adopted: “That the Government be requested to enact appropriate legislation requiring all hawkers and itinerant vendors to be licensed annually or otherwise and that the Police Department be the sole licensing authority.” Disappointment was expressed by the chairman that the conference had seen fit to adopt this remit, which would not react to the benefit of the association. Notice of motion was given to have it rescinded. When the conference resumed today Mr I. J. Goldstine

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