The Dominion. FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1944. THE MUNICIPAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 192, 12 May 1944, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1944. THE MUNICIPAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

It is a matter for general regret that party politics and partisan bitterness have come into the foreground of the municipal election campaign in Wellington. The large majority of citizens had hoped that party political tactics, which were introduced in past campaigns, would on this occasion be abandoned in order that voters might exercise their choice of a mayor and councillors calmly and carefully—with regard only to the need, in the difficult years ahead, for a prudent, experienced stewardship of local affairs. Unhappily this hope has not been realized. On the contrary there has developed a campaign in which all the worst and most confusing aspects of sectional political strife are assuming prominence. Instead of reasoned consideration of the city’s present circumstances and future problems, there is a clamour for office by a frankly, avowedly political, group, the spokesmen of which are endeavouring to provoke disputation and distract public attention from the real issue—the capacity of the candidates for office. Few thinking citizens will be deceived by the various arguments comprising the campaign of criticism launched against the city’s present administration policy. For example, the difficulties of maintaining adequate transport facilities under war conditions in an overcrowded community are so widely understood that the attempt to make capital out of the situation will be seen as a political manoeuvre, ptire and simple. The distortion of the housing question will be similarly estimated, as will the attempts to create antagonism between one group of ratepayers and another. The danger is not that the people will fail to recognize the shallowness, and insincerity of this particular talk —and the opportunism which inspires.it. Where the danger lies is in the possibility that voters and candidates alike will be provoked into futile, acrimonious controversy on the basis of sectionalism and partisanship—controversy which will cause the question of administrative capacity to be overlooked. There is no proper place for sectionalism, prejudice and conflict of interest in local body affairs. Municipal control, by its very nature, should be non-political control. The mayor as chief citizen, and the councillors as “city fathers,” are vested with responsibility for the interests of citizens as a whole. For any candidate to such office to present himself, unabashed, as the representative of one section of the community and a champion of certain political beliefs, constitutes an attempted perversion of the ideal of local government. What is even more to the point, it threatens an extension to local administration of one of the most deplorable features of partisanship in national politics—namely, preference in appointments to paid positions in the municipal service. This evil has obtruded itself into national administrative affairs with startling disregard for public opinion. Its spread to local administration must be firmly resisted. If anything could.be worse for the city than party administration, dominated by sectional organizations among the public, it would be the gradual infiltration to key positions on the public payroll of party adherents chosen with little or no regard for their qualifications as servants of the community. Those to be looked to for civic service today are responsible people who may be trusted to apply their practical experience—not as group organizers or minor political strategists, but as practical administrators —to the city’s contemporary and future affairs. The war period has been one of unprecedented difficulty for the local bodies of this country, and particularly for the Wellington City Council. Those difficulties may increase in several directions before normal times return. It is vitally important that a continuity of sound municipal control, based on long experience and infused with progressive yet practicable planning, should be retained.