The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, March 18, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1375, 18 March 1915, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, March 18, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Next mouth the municipal elections will lake place, and for the first time the mayor will be elected for a period of equal duration with the councillors, viz. two years. The election affords an opportunity to burgesses to examine into the affairs of the borough, and to ascertain whether their representatives have faithfully discharged the important trust reposed in them, and to obtain from candidates for municipal trusteeship their views as to future policy and administration. If the best results are to be obtained from the taxation levied, It is necessary that those who control should possess a thorough knowledge of local requirements, aud sufficient business acumen, initiative and knowledge of municipal law, to enable them to get the best results with the means at their disposal. To attend a meeting once a month with a vague idea of the business to be transacted, isn’t good enough. If this obtained it were better to leave the affairs in the hands of the Town Clerk. As a matter of fact this mistake is made by many municipalities. The cause is obvious : men elected to the Council as a matter of form, in fact pressed to take office without a due realisation of the important responsibilities which rest upon them. The duties of citizenship is lacking here as elsewhere, and people who complain about a state of drift must themselves take the blame for their own indifference. The lime has arrived tor a quickening In municipal life if Foxton is to march forward in the van of progress. The Council can be not only a centre of local dynamic force, but can do much to advance the town, through a keener interest in district affairs for the promotion and welfare of the borough. First, the townspeople must be aroused, and we urge them to seek out the best men we have in the community to push things forward during the coming two years.