THE LOCAL ELECTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1738, 1 May 1913, Page 4

THE LOCAL ELECTIONS.

Electors who went to the polls yest-er&ay to record their votes in the local bodies elections had a much more troublesome task than usual to perforin. The four separate issues upon which they were called to vote, and the large number of candidates offering for the City Council and the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board seats, made the duty of voting quite an ordeal, but on the whole I the polling would seem to have proceeded as smoothly and expeditiously as could.be expected. There may have been isolated cases, of insufficient accommodation for voters, as seems to have been the experience at Island Bay, and, hero and there, there was at times a little looseness in controlling the actions of voters within the booths; but the occasion was x an exceptional one, in so far as each voter was occupied much longer than usual in the task of voting, and so delayed others who had received their ballot papers, but could not find a vacant recess in which tomark them. The heavy poll in the city is a matter for congratulation, as affording evidence of the interest excited in the issues at stake, and the determination of citizens to resist the attempt of the LabourSocialists to capture the controlof the principal local governing bodies. The Mayoralty contest resulted, as we had hoped it would, in the defeat of tho sitting Mayor. Mr. M'Laren, backed by the LabourSocialists, made a desperate fight io retain office, and was assisted in recording a heavy poll by., other interests personally antagonistic to his opponent. A despicable attempt was made in the closing stages of the contest to win a sympathy vote for Mil. M'Laren, on the ground that the opposition to him was based on his lack of social standing. The plain fact is that the only persons who dragged in the class issue were the Labour-Socialists themselves, and the opposition to Mr. M'Laren, instead of being personal, was mainly based 011 his association with a ticket pledged to class principles. As we have throughout contended, the light was one of principle: Class rule, as represented by the Labour ticket, versus citizens' rule, as championed by those who stood unfettered and in the interests of all classes. Mr. J. P. Luke, who defeated Mr. M'Laren by over 500 votes, is to be congratulated not only 011 the victory which he has won against a powerful combination, but also on the very fair and straightforward manner in which 110 has conducted tho campaign. So far as the contests for the other positions are concerned, the full details are not available at time of writing. It is very plain, however, that the citizens have been determined to administer a sharp lessou to the Labour-Socialist organisation. One Labour candidate alone has been successful in the Harbour Board election, while for the City Council only two out of the fifteen on the Labour ticket appear to have any chance of .success, and the two in question are not "workers" in the Labour sense. The LabourSocialists over-reached themselves. They were not contcnt to endeavour to secure that reasonable representation to which they were fairly entitled, but sought by means of thenorganisation to secure the whole of the seats available, and thus gain uncontrolled sway over the municipality and its affairs. Their greed for power has proved their undoing. Had they been satisfied to run a reasonable number of candidates, they would not have aroused the antagonism which has culminated in iVir downfall. One can sympathise with

the more reasonable section of Labour over the unfortunate position in which they have been placed by the incapacity and lack of judgment on the part of their leaders, and also on account of the fact that the only representation they seem likely to secure is that of such members of their ticket as Messus. Hixdjiarsii (a lawyer) and Tiiegeaii (a retired Civil Servant of Socialistic tendencies). Labour proper is left in outer darkness. From the figures available at time of writing, it would seem that most of the old councillors of proved service will be returned, while there will be an addition of new blood of a useful and invigorating kind. Citizens have every reason to congratulate themselves <jn the result of the day's polling.