Party or Fitness ?

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16430, 25 January 1919, Page 8

Party or Fitness ?

Tbo' advocates of proportional representation for municipal elections seem to hare lost sight of tho real point at issue. Nobody disputes the fact that if there are a number of parties, or cliques, or groups of faddists in a community, the system of proportional representation, if carried out strictly by tho voters —and this is an important point'—will ensure ench of those parties, cliques, and groups of faddists being represented with mathematical accuracy on the elected body. But is that tho object of a municipal election? Surely tho government of a city, propeily considered, is a business proposition, and our aim should be to get tho men best fitted for th<j work. No doubt if the advocates o| tho system euccoed in getting it foisted again on tho city for the municipal elections, they will try next to get the Tramway Board elections conductod in the same

way. What could be more ridiculous. The managoment of the tramways by a .municipal body is as much o matter of sound business methods and instincts, as is its management by a private company. What is wanted in each case as a Board of Management, or a Board of Directors, is a number of level-hoaded business men. who can be trusted to deal with tho questions brought before them with sound judgment md a sincere desire to conserve the interests of those for whom they are acting. What would l>e thought of a private company owning a tramway worth three-quarters of a million of monev who elected its directors by proportional representation, so that the Liberals and Conservatives, the Prohibitionists and "Moderates," the Bolshevists and "Bourgeois" in the ranks of the shareholders might each be sure of its exact mathematical quota of representation on the Board? Such a proposition is so fantastic that it is at ones laughed out of court. Yet will anyone seriously argue that while practical ability for the work is essential in i the case of a director of a tramway ] company, when it comes to the member of a City Council or a Tramway Board, j what really matters is not his business qualifications, but his political colour, or the particular group of faddists to which ho may happen to belong ? It is because the system of proportional representation was tried for the last municipal elections and found not only costly and cumbrous, but very ineffective as a means of selecting the best candidates, that the majority of the citizens have become disgusted with it, and want to revert to the old system. It was hopeless for the voter at the last election, called upon to return sixteen candidates out of 30, most of whom were personally unknown to him to pretend to any process of discrimination. All he could do was to vote " the ticket," and in most cases ho voted it alphabetically. Councillor Beanland, who, -under this arrangement, came at the top of the poll, has had the courage and independence to come out as a pronounced opponent of the system, because ho believes it is not adapted for the purpose to which its advocates wish to apply it in Christchurch. His view, we believe, is that of every person of common-sense whosaw what took place at our last municipal elections,' and is prepared to look at the question from a dispassionate point of view. In his "Recollections," reviewed in another column, Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge refers to one of two mistakes which landsmen aro likely to make when they put sailors! expressions into print. Even Dibden makes a ridiculous mistake in the song which says: "Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling." What is meant is a "mere hulk." A "sheer hilllt," Sir Cyprian points out, is a much-used and very useful vessel. When: he first went to sea, fitting out a ship meant putting all necessary equipment and stores aboard an empty hull. A "sheer hulk" was a vossel which hoisted the ship's masts position by means of sheers. Another error corrected by Admiral Bridge is speaking of the Spanish Main as if it were part of the sea, whereas it is simply, the sailor's translation of "Tierra lirme," and means the Spanish mainland in Mexico and in Central and South America, ae distinguished from the Islands in the West Indies. ♦ '— New South Wales is being scourged with a drought comparable with that of four years ago, or as some experienced pastoralists assert, with that of 1902. and the £100,000 which the Government has allotted for advances to farmers who have suffered, will not, it is to bo feared, meet all the losses. Reports in the latest Sydney papers give very gloomy accounts of conditions in the west and north-west of the State. In the Milparinka district there is not a vestige of feed in the sandy country, which is practically a moving mass of sandj always being blown to and fro. Round about Wilcannia there has been no rain of any consequence since April, and most of the travelling stotfk routes are closed. Tho stations in the Bathurst district are mostly suffering terribly from want of water, for which travellers are paying half-a-crown a bucket for their horses. Tho sheep, according to one pastoralist, had not suffered greatly Tip to about a fortnight ago, on stations where they could get water, though they appeared to have nothing but dust to eat. The secret was that the dust was actually nutritious, being loaded with the seed dropped from the grass of previous good seasons! The only comfort to be obtained from the situation in large areas of the State was that the drought was killing off the rabbits in vast numbers, and has almost exterminated the blowfly. which in good seasons oxacts a heavy toll from the flocks. —4 There is a very definite section of the Australian people who carry their antiBritish feelings to the extent of showing hostility to returned soldiers, for no other reason, apparently, than the latter hnve been fighting for the Empire, including Australia, in the long struggle for liberty. Lieut.-Colonel Abbott, M.P., told an audience the other day that returned soldiers in Glen Innes, who complained that they had had "dirty slurs" cast on them by various sections of the community, wero not alone in that respect. Queensland members had told him that in some parts of that State "returned men had had to take their badges off to avoid getting a 'rough time,' and that they had been jeered at for having been 'fools enough to fight.' " The Colonel advised the men to stick together, and wait until their mates camo home. There would bo enough of thenv then to mould public opinion, and becomo the most powerful force in Australia.