The Dominion WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1908. TO-DAY'S ELECTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 184, 29 April 1908, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1908. TO-DAY'S ELECTION.

■ - ' —"* — l "7 ' • :• - ■ To-day it is the duty of citizens to record, their votes for. the election of the Mayor of Wellington for tii6 ensuing twelve months. Both the candidates have liad previous experience in the coildlict. cif municipal affairs, both occupy leading positions in the com'munity, and both are. well-knoWn by all clashes in the city. 1 In iriaking a selection, theii, as between two men of this calibre the citizens have oast upon them a more than ordinarily important, duty, a choice requirihg careful deliberation, and an enhanced responsibility. It is to be hoped that by the numbers who will go to the polling booths it will be demonstrated that the electors thoroughly realise all that their selection means for the city. For this i$ a contest not only between this oi' that candidate, but between what the candidates staiul for; ah election based not ineJ'ely on the. personality .of the contestants, theii? personal fitness or popularity, out on the determining of principles Vital to the.just arid pure admiflistratten of our civic affairs. .We are. not oonoornotl to tiue details of either Mr, Hislop's or.

Mr. Aitken's previous municipal management. The citizens during the course of the election addresses by the respective candidates have had these details reiterated ad nauseam. The past is dead.and gone; the 'human errors of. omission and commission which its record may show , are only valuable when they serve, as lfessons for the future. It is 'the 'future which rests_ in : the hands, of the citizens this day in choosing whom they' will place in the_ highest municipal' position at their, disposal, thus affirming, or otherwise, certain principles under which he and his successors, with the assistance of the Council, shall rule. " For brevity's sake these principles may be coiidehsedUnder 't\vo heads: the ques-' tion of the Continuity of the . Mayoral office in the-same person for successive years; the admission into our municipal administration of the methods of Tammany, government'by the " Boss " or the " Union," and the principle of the Spoils to the victors." At the_ outset of this electoral campaign. this journal seized tile first opportunity to make clear that its opposition to Mr. Ilislop was based mainly 011 the conviction that it was inimical 'to.the interests of the city that the same man should hold the office of Mayor for several years in succession. Its views on that point have received ample vindication 'during .the progress of this contest. • If: an3'tning had been needed, .to confirm their soundness, Mr. Hislop- has himself ' supplied it in the course of, his self-laudatory election speeches. The last doubt that Mr. Hislop—as a result of his loiig official tenure — considered himself to, be both Mayor and Council in one, and that as Mayor lie dominated the Council, must have lieeiv dispelled by this time: "We do not blame Mr. Hislop so much for this attitude, as we do the system of which it is the logical outcome. Continuous hold of office .breeds autocratic methods; it is the cradle of the despot. . Given a strong and power - seeking man and the opportunities of, years of rule,, and no one may lift a voice against llis, for n6 one khotvs. so miicli of the inner circle of things, and!'no one wields so much power in tile' interests: of this or that body or individual. ' There is 110 necessity to labour the point. All intelligent people ftiust see,. that continuity of office, the Mayoral or any other, in the person of one and the same individual is liable to bring untold evils in its train. Mr. Hislop has already held the Mayoral office for three years in succession, and ai change is imperatively necessary in the interests of the citizens, however ill or well Mr. Hislop may have discharged his duties. To those' who object that Mr; Aitken was continuously , in office for a longer period than Mr. Ifslop has been we must answer that the principle we contend for remains unshaken. Certainly Mr. Aitken has not the same lust for power which has characterised Mr. Hislop in his usurpation of authority during his long terili of office. Certainly, also, Mr. Aitken can plead that he was induced to retain the Mayoralty in his later years of office in order that his knowledge and experience might be available in connection with the completion of works instituted during his regime—a con'ditioii" of things not existing at the present time with Mr. Hislop._ But we do not raise these points in defence of Mr. Aitken's position, in tlie past. \ . What we urge is that no Mayor of a large city such as this is can hold office continuously for a long period without risk of the growth of abuses inimical to the best interests • of citizens ' generally. ' The election of Mr.' Aitken at the present contest would be in full accord with the principle laid down,, ami would act as a wholesome check on the development of those injurious influences which are insidiously creeping into our municipal life. Now;, as to the other main, principle involved, the keeping of 1 our civic administration . fl'ee from the methods known as Tammany. It will be patent, to all that we have in miiul Mr. Hislop'S injudicious address to the members of the Tramways Union,, who are iniinicipal employees, at a time when' that Union was demanding from the City Council an increase of for its members. The fact that the Union, immediately after Mr. Hislop had addressed it;. passed a resolution calling upon its members to vote for Mr; Hislop aiid to actively _ support his candidature not only aggravated the indiscretion, but was proof positive of the dangerous precedent it established 1 Now, had Mr. Hislop been so constituted as Hot only to perceive the great mistake he had itiadej but also to acknowledge it, there would have been an end of the matter, and the incident, however deplorable, would not have become a great issue at this election. But Mr. Hislop cannot see anything at all put of the way in this action of his; he defends it 011 every opportunity. Hence it is only reasonable to assume that lie is so mentally and morally constituted that he approves the principle of sections of the community) banded together for mutual benefit purposes. being able to sway an election to a public office by the use of the corporate vote in anticipation of benefits to be received. That is Tammany, ■iiid the "spoils to the victors," plain and simple, and Mr...Hislop favours such ti state of things. He may not realise this. He lias denied that he

promised the Tramways Employees' Union anything', and we' must accept this assurance unreservedly. But .he lias placed himself tinder a direct obligation to the Tramways employees, oil whose demands for improved conditions of employment he will, with the City Council, sit in judgment if returned to office. He can see no wrong in this! We think every unbiased person will view with grave concern the possibility of the re-election of Mr. Hislop even if 011 this ground alone. The decision on these matters we have referred to rests with the citizens. In Mr. Hislop they have a shrewd lawyer, but a candidate who stands for continuity of the Mayoral office in one and the same person until that person virtually rules the citizens' Council, and becomes a law only.-unto himself. In Mr. Hislop they have' also a gentleman who sees no objection to the entrance into our civic life of the deplorable methods so notorious in some American governmental institutions. In Mr. Hislop, they have a candidate who evidently fails to perceive the mischievous policy of introducing into this citizens' electioneering contest the elements of class strife, knowing well, as he does, that there as not the slightest foundation for raising such an issue. 011 the other hand, the citizens'have in Mr. Aitken a candidate well known for strict probity and'straightforward dealing; a gentleman equally well versed in municipal affairs;, a successful ad-; ministrator, 1 not so skilled a. tactician as Mr. Hislop, perhaps, but one whose plain dealing is 'frequently more advantageous than the cleverest scheming ; who makes no class distinctions, and who would, not place his office beneath the heel of any combined section of the community to retain any official position in the gift of his fellow-man. It ;is for. the citizens to choose, and we shall be as surprised, as we shall be genuinely sorry, if they do liot exercise that choice in the direction of securing for tlie_ city the,needed change in its chief civic official.' '. .