THR

I have asked this question in previous threads but htreads seem to have an expiry-date, so the old ones get closed.

Namely, the territorial authorities of NZ:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territo...of_New_Zealand

My question is do these authorities work as single municipalities or are they subdivided into local parishes or whatever you call them? Some of the territorial authorities are geographically very large but yet populationwise very small.

The reason why this interests me is that here in Finland we have about 350 municipalities and there have been mergers and still people say that there are far too many of them. NZ is not that much smaller a country than Finland, be it population or area, that if they can make their country work with 67 local authorities, we can make our country work with 100-150 local authorities.

southerner

Below TA level you may occasionally get community boards that in reality have no real power. They just allow a particular locality that perhaps has some defined distinctness from the rest of the TA to have a forum to raise their own concerns.

My own view are that community boards are usually a hang over from the amalgamation process, and in order to get everyone to agree to amalgamate councils the concession of allowing a community board has been made. Over time some of these go away as people realise they really don't have a real purpose apart from being a layer of bureaucy and talk fest opportunity.

The ideal size and number of TAs is related to the questions of efficiency, representation and identity. Over time there have been amalgamations - recent ones include Banks Peninsula becoming part of Christchurch and all the Auckland cities merging as one.

And there will I'm sure be more in the future, I've heard that the 2 councils in the Nelson region should merge; one is a city council, one a country one - yet the greater Nelson metropolitan area [I use the term loosely ] incorporates Richmond where the country council is based.

There is no great central debate on having fewer TAs or councils - there seems to be a consensus amongst most that it will take its own course and is best if the local debate drives the agenda. The exception may be Rodney Hide (a right wing polly who I think would like to force some consildations in the interests of cost savings).

THR

Thanks for that, it was very interesting and informative.

I see you are from Dunedin, a city of 3300 sqkm and 120000 population. 3300 sqkm is quite a large area, bigger than many countries in this world. Do most of the 120000 people who live in Dunedin live in some very small area leaving a lot of sparsely populated areas?

southerner

Yes - there are only 2 other settlements of about 500 peeps each, and the rest of the suburban population lives in the city itself and its satellites (Mosgiel, Port Chalmers, etc).

THR

I was going to ask about Auckland but you provided the answer in your reply as I have been wondering has there been a change in the status of Auckland and the whole region is now officially one city. Surely there must have been some debate whether a unitary authority of 1.4m people in a country of 4m people is a bit too large but on the other hand, Auckland has always been one city but the artificial municipal boundaries have hindered development.