THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1868.

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 454, 10 December 1868, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1868.

This is a very important day for Westland and even for the whole Colony, for upon the elections of to-day depends to a great extent the success or failure of one of the most interesting experiments in local government that has ever been tried. In a few hours the old County Council will have ceased to exist, and successors will have been chosen who will assume their duties with the fullest authority over the affairs of the County, and complete control over the public purse. Judging from the strong contests in the principal districts, the electors are fully alive to the necessity of sending the best men they can find to represent their interests, and we regard this as an argument in favor of not increasing the number of members in- the Council. We think it highly probable that if the Council had consisted of eighteen instead of nine members, there would not have been that care on the part of the electoi*s to secure only good men which they have manifested during the present elections. We should regret very much to see any attempt made to enlarge the Council. Nine picked men are worth twice the number of ordinary average men, and we can see no other object to be gained by increasing the Council thau to enable a few disappointed politicians to sneak into seats that, under other circumstances, they would have had no chance of occupying. There seems to be a possibility of an effort being made to disturb the arrangement provided by the Act ior the election of Chairman. Mr. Sale, who ought to have known better, characterised the election of its Chairman by the Council as an anomaly in Now Zealand politics. He should have roiiuiiriborcd that in four out of

the nine Provinces in New Zealand, viz.: — Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Marlborongh, and Southland, the Superintendents are elected by the Provincial Councils. Not only is tins mode of chosing the chief executive officer not an anomaly, but we think it far better for a district like Wetland than popular ; election. If the 'Chairman of the County were to be chosen by the people, the election would be entirely in the hands [ of one class — the miners — a class who do not, as a rule, exercise very great discrimination in political matters. But as ie is the Chairman is virtually elected by the people, for we presume that in chosing their representatives the electors give some consideration to the possibility of the candidate being called to the chair, or at least to exercise his vote in deciding who shall fill it. The chief officer of the County under the new system can in reality only reach that position by a refining process, first at the hands of his immediate constituents and then those of the Council. We notice an absurd proposal in the leading columns of our Hokitika contemporary, to the effect that every candidate should be called upon to pledge himself to consent to a dissolution of the Council as soon as it meets, in order that the opinion of the electors should be taken regarding the election of Chairman. We should hope that no candidate would be foolish enough to consent to am* such ridiculous arrangement. The choice of its own Chairman was one of the chief poir>ts insisted upon by the late Council in its resolutions. These resolutions even went further — they pi-oposed that the Chairman should be removable by a majority of two- thirds of the Council. Those resolutions were freely published at the time, and if, as is now argued in certain quarters, the election of Chairman by the Council is unconstitutional, why did not the "West Coast Times" object to it then. The fact is all this talk about increasing the number of the Council, and electing the Chairman by popular vote, is mere electioneering bunkum. We hope that it will cease with the elections, and that the new Council will not jeopardise the success of its new constitution by commencing to tinker it. We trust the electors will to-day think over these matters before recording their votes. -Iv chosing their representatives we fi'6pV"they will remembar that they are selecting men iuto whose hands will be placed the working out of a highly important and delicate political problem, upon the successful solution of which depends very largely the fate of the principal of local self-govern-meut that was so hardly fought for during the last session of Parliament.