PUBLIC OPINION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 151, 24 April 1940, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION

IN Whakatane, where growing- necessities of a small town suddenly become large, providing an ever swelling stream of problems for the municipality, it is only to be expected that public opinion in the mater of fresh, or contemplated loans for expenditure will have an important bearing upon their realisation or otherwise. But public opinion—how to discover its direction, or how to measure its intensity is one of the newer professional arts. American experts tell us that it is possible to guage it within one per cent of accuracy or within four per cent for quick publication. It would be better in a town such as our own to place more confidence in "public conviction" for too often have we seen public opinion so preponderant in one direction, rudely shaken by popular conviction which has thrust itself up through the complacent crust of conservatism and commandingly turned the whole stream of affairs in the opposite direction. Todays overwhelming public favour may quite easily become tomorrow's total distrust. It 'is impossible to learn the real feelings of a community until something really important occurrs to uncover its convictions. Rude necessity, such as water shortage,, power failure,, or the breakdown of any facility which the public has been used to will create a definite public conviction. The day is not far distant when the sleeping conscience of this town will demand, a new satatary service, an abbatior, a guaranteed water system. All these things and many others are patent to every thinking person in the Borough. They will be borne along wholeheartedly and easily by the current of public opinion. When however the question of costs enters into the argument,, public opinion as often as not will swing dn the opposite direction, content to put up with a perpetuation of the old sad state of affairs until suah time as its tougher brother "public conviction" begins to assert itself. The very publicness of men's opinion often serves to conceal private reservations beneath. If the distinction of these two points were better understood if we knew opinion as the variable weather report and conviction as the reliable solar calender; if we knew conviction as the -granite strata laid down by generations* and. opinion merely as the dust that is whirled in the wind—we would suffer less confusion and uncertainty. Men's opinion often diismay those in authority to know, by their complete disregard of primary facts. Blausable persuasion often enters into the question, and the old herd instinct is quick to catch a popular grievance or imagined hardship. But there is one cheering aspect, conviction must always have opinion at its mercy, and 'in the long run must ultimately win through. Opinion however is a jealously guarded privelege which we Britishers hold as a sacred birthright, but why worry about seeking to change it, if in the ordinary course of events,, conviction in the rational human being can be relied upon to smash it to smithereens if 'it will not stand the acid-test of time and quiet thinking. Thus while it is necessary to listen to and regard pugljic opinion as 'important in all matters pertaining to Whakatane and its needs, the thinking citizen will watch the proceedings with reservations and await the time when the matter has hardened under the more analytical processes of conviction. Then, standing by those convictions constitutes the greatest service as we as ordinary individuals can render our town and district. 111-founded opinions have diivided us in the past,, conviction will unite lis under any emergency or crisis. To try and measure pubic opinion is useful work, but it can only .be weighed 'in the scales of private conviction.