村田 幸次
Koji Murata
| 小さな自治体の合併は、明治22年制定の市制、町村制にもその趣旨があったように、その団体の財産は全部合併することが原則であった。そのため箱根ヶ崎村外三ヶ村組合は財産のある村、ない村で官庁の呼びかけにもかかわらず合併できず経過してきた。 | The overall intention behind the merging of small municipalities was to consolidate all the assets of these organizations in line with the law of 1888 setting a municipal code for cities, and also the code for town-villages system enacted in Meiji 22th year (1889). In the case of the proposed Association of Hakonegasaki and Three Other villages, some with, and some without, assets, this had been postponed because of difficulties in merging, despite appeals from the government office. |
| 当時の公印は「箱根ヶ崎村 石畑村 殿ヶ谷村 長岡村 組合長印」で名称は「箱根ヶ崎村外三ヶ村組合長」と呼んでいた。各村は、独立した自治体で毎年度7つの予算が編成されていた(各村4．組合1．学校2)。 | The official seal of those days was "Seal of the Head of the Hakonegasaki-Ishihata-Tonogaya-Nagaoka Village Association", and the official title of this office was "the Head of the Association of Hakonegasaki and Three Other Villages". Since each village was an independent and self-governing body, seven budgets (one each for four villages, one for the association and two for schools) had to be compiled every fiscal year. |
| 昭和15年頃、このままでは時局の対応に遅れるとの理由で当時の東京府知事からの再三にわたる強い要請にもかかわらず、合併を拒みつづけてきた。 | Around 1940, the association had still been resisting the merger, in spite of strong and repeated demands by the Tokyo prefectural governor, who said that without changing the villages could not cope with the current situation. |
| 当時の岡田知事は、各村の所有する財産の差が大きな障害となっているとの判断に基き、各村の有する財産はそのまま凍結してもよい。いわゆる「部落有財産」として保有してもよいとの行政例の指示に従い、協議の結果、合併を組合村議会の議案とすることに決定したのであった。 | In determining that the biggest obstacle to date had been the discrepancy between the asset holdings of the different villages, Governor Okada directed that ownership of the assets held by each village should remain unchanged. It was a so-called administrative case whereby these assets were allowed to be held as "village owned property". Following this directive, the villages held a meeting, and consequently decided to present a bill for the merger to the village association council. |
| ところが更に難問があった。それは新しい町の名称である。数回にわたり組合議会の協議会を開催したが不調に終り、議会の開催に至らなかった。 | However, there was another difficult issue, which was the name of the new town. Several meetings of the association council were held on this issue, but all ended in failure without leading to the establishment of the ssembly. |
| 最終案として、東京府知事岡田周造さんに命名を一任することに決定した。付帯条件として名付けられた町名が如何なるものであっても異議を申し立てないとの約束をして「瑞穂町」が誕生した。 | As a final proposal, it was decided to entrust the naming to the Tokyo prefectural governor, Shuzo Okada. This request included an undertaking that there would be no objection raised against any suggested name – and so "Mizuho Town" was born. |
| (当時箱根ヶ崎村外三ヶ村組合書記) | (K.M. was a secretary of the Association of Hakonegasaki and three other villages at this time) |