HARBOUR BOARD REPRESENTATION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 85, 11 May 1949, Page 4

HARBOUR BOARD REPRESENTATION

Sir, —Notwithstanding that its own Local Government Commission unanimously recommended that the principle of democratic elections should be instituted for all Harbour Board seats and all special representation abolished, the Labour Government lot, in effect, increased its own representation on most Harbour Boards, in some cases from one to four representatives, and has thus deliberately extended a system its own commission had condemned outright. This is a grave threat to our democratic local government system and will be bitterly resented by all genuine upholders of democracy. In effect, the Labour members of Parliament no longer trust the very people who elect them to Parliament to elect their representatives on local bodies. In short, the new system is straightout Communism, since it deliberately tramples underfoot the democratic principles upon which our way of life is based, and only a change of Government can now excise this growing Communistic evil from our midst. A whole set of false assumptions, false economics and false propagandist notions needs to be swept away, and in their place we must have a coherent policy, lighted by vision and inspired by faith. Yours etc.,

RICHARD S. THOMPSON. Wetherstoner,' Otago.