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tion of the people affected will allow it to be related to modem methods of municipal administration : we have therefore no alternative but to relate it to older methods. We are aware of and we appreciate all the objections that can be urged against the creation of ad hoc authorities with separate officers, staffs, and borrowing and rating powers. An excellent summary of these objections, and of the parochial views out of which the necessity first arose, will be found in the " Encyclopaedia of the Laws of England," Volume 7, page 499, sub. now,. " Local Government." The learned writer says, — As the nation developed and its requirements increased new local authorities were created —Highway Boards ; Local Boards of Health ; Improvement Act Commissioners ; Port Sanitary Authorities ; Burial Boards ; and School Boards—a new and special a-uthority was called into existence to meet each crying need. And in each case this was done without any regard to previously existing divisions or authorities. Each new creation paid no heed to, and seemed to have no knowledge of, any of its predecessors, but appointed its own staff of officers, levied its separate rates, and pursued its own independent policy. The result was that the country was covered with a number of separate authorities —" a jungle of ' jurisdictions " —whose functions sometimes clashed, whose areas intersected. This, it should be noted, was written concerning the state of things that existed in England in the early part of the nineteenth century. It was the state of things out of which our modern system of municipal government was evolved, a system on which the Municipal Corporations Act of 1920 is the latest word in this country. The very genius of that Act is that the physical and material growth of small centres of population into larger centres, finding expression in wider civic outlook, should find available the municipal machinery for the ideals of that wider outlook. As larger centres tend to grow and coalesce, the civic requirements of the people tend to transcend the old boundaries, and again this should find expression in a wider civic outlook and pride. Here again our Municipal Corporations Act provides the machinery for the expression of the spirit and the administration of the services by the amalgamation and absorption of contiguous boroughs. But given the physical growth, the mere aggregation of houses and population, without the corresponding widening of outlook, and the administration of the civic services which have transcended the artificial boundaries cannot be related to the modern legislation. That is our present problem. The transport equipment and methods and the standard of comfort required belong to the decade 1925 to 1935. The municipal outlook and spirit deposed to by many witnesses before us belong to the decade 1825 to 1835. The above extract from the " Encyclopaedia of the Laws of England " might well be constructed from the evidence given before us relating to Auckland at the present time. The solution of the problem requires us to bring transport requirements and civic administration into line. One alternative is to bring the civic administration up to the date of the requirements. That would mean a compulsory amalgamation of the local bodies, and that is, by general consent, wholly impolitic. The only alternative is to relate the present transport problem to the older methods and trust to time and the education of the public to remove the anomaly. We therefore recommend the formation of a special Transport Board to deal with the problem, and we now approach the task of recommending the constitution and powers of that Board. With what Constitution should a Transport Board be established ? We beg to recommend as follows : — It shall be a body incorporated by a special Act of Parliament, under the name of the Auckland Transport Board. District. —The district shall comprise the three areas comprised below, viz.— (1) The City of Auckland as at present constituted. (2) The Boroughs of Mount Eden, Newmarket, and Mount Albert. (3) The Borough of Onehunga and the Road Districts of One Tree Hill, Mount Roskill, Panmure Township, and Mount Wellington, and the Town District of Ellerslie. The boundaries of the said district, or any of the above areas comprised in the district, may from time to time be altered by the Governor-General in Council.

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