THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated. THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1929. THE ELECTIONS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5413, 19 April 1929, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated. THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1929. THE ELECTIONS.

With nominations for the Ohinemuri County Council closing on the 27th inst., there remains but little time for intending candidates to make up their minds and for the comm*, ity to propose prospective councillors! General apathy to the whole question of local government is apparent towards the county council elections, as it was with the borough. The law gives to the people the right to elect their own representatives to these offices—“government by the people, for the people.” The day the Magna Charta was sealed saw the beginning in modern Britain of civic liberties, local as well as national ; now, after all the centuries of struggle to bring franchise to the practically universal stage it is to-day, the honoui- and duty of citizenship is spurned. What our forefathers fought for the present day chooses to ignore. There is only one alternative—and, should it come, the people themselves will be wholly to blame for it—the question of local government will be taken entirely out of the hands of those who have the power to control it now. Government-appointed officials will, take the place of men elected by the populace.