Submitted by admin on April 22, 2009 - 21:27
Major Types of Local Authorities in New Zealand
(excluding education authorities, licensing trusts, airport authorities, domain and public hall boards, and cemetery trusts)
Local authorities fall within two main categories: general-purpose territorial authorities and special-purpose, or ad hoc authorities. There are several types of territorial local authorities:
Territorial Local Authorities | |
County councils | 115 |
City and borough councils | 144 |
Town councils (independent) | 14 |
Town councils (dependent) | 9 |
Road boards | 3 |
Subtotal | 275 |
Special-purpose Authorities | |
Catchment boards and commissions | 16 |
Electric power boards | 41 |
Electric power and gas boards | 2 |
*Fire authorities | 238 |
Harbour boards | 32 |
Harbour bridge authority | 1 |
Hospital boards | 37 |
Land drainage boards | 32 |
Local railway boards | 1 |
†Milk boards | 52 |
Nassella tussock boards | 2 |
Plantation boards | 1 |
Rabbit boards | 180 |
River boards | 10 |
River valley authority | 1 |
Road tunnel authorities | 1 |
Transport boards | 2 |
Underground water authorities | 3 |
Urban drainage boards | 5 |
Water supply boards | 1 |
Subtotal | 658 |
Grand total | 933 |
*Includes 178 where the board is a territorial local authority.
†Includes 36 where the board is a territorial local authority.
Counties
These are administrative units primarily intended for the administration of predominantly rural areas, although today, as a consequence of urban expansion, some counties include heavily urbanised areas. There is now no legislative authority for the establishment of new counties otherwise than by the merger of existing counties. Where an urban district under county council control contains at least 200 persons or 60 dwellings, with a density of at least one person to the acre or one dwelling to 3 acres, the county council may constitute the urban district as a county town.
County town committees, appointed by the parent county councils, act in an advisory capacity to their parent councils in respect of the towns concerned. There are at present 117 counties, of which 115 are controlled by county councils. The two remaining cover sparsely settled and relatively isolated areas in which the need for county government has not yet arisen.
Cities
The title of city is a courtesy or status title only, bestowed on boroughs having a population of at least 20,000. A city council has precisely the same powers and functions as a borough council.
Boroughs
Although some older boroughs are smaller, districts may not now be constituted as boroughs unless they have a population of at least 1,500 with a density of at least one person to the acre, concentrated in not more than 9 square miles in which no point shall be more than 6 miles distant from another. Boroughs and cities, of which there are at present 144, are urban units completely independent of the county structure.
Town Districts
Town districts may be either independent, that is, completely independent of county control and, in effect, miniature boroughs so far as the functions and powers of their town councils are concerned, or dependent, in which case they form part of and are subject to a limited degree of control by a county council. As no new dependent town districts may now be constituted this type of administrative unit is gradually disappearing. Independent town districts may not be formed unless they have a population of at least 500 with a density of at least one person to the acre, concentrated in not more than 2 square miles in which no point shall be more than 4 miles distant from another. At the present time there are 24 town districts.
Road Districts
There are three road districts, two in the Sounds County, which is not governed by a county council, and one on Waiheke Island. Their governing bodies are road boards which, as their name implies, are concerned with little more than district roading.