Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1925. THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 126, 1 May 1925, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1925. THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Beyond the pyrrhio victory of the Labour Socialist candidate for the Christchurch Mayoralty, the municipal elections on Wednesday appear to have done Very little to advance the interests of the Labour Socialists throughout the Dominion. The Christchurch exception is plainly due to the folly of three candidates standing in the interests of the moderate section of the community against a fourth candidate, who had the backing of the Labour organisation. But even the reverend gentleman, who will for the next two years occupy the Mayor’s position in the city of Christchurch, can hardly claim to have received the hill support, even of the Socialist Party, whose total vote in the three Christchurch city constituencies at the last General Elections was oyer 13,000. Of those, the Socialist candidate for the Mayoralty merely secured 9069, which gave him a majority of Hl6 over the ex-Mayor (Mr Flesher), but left him in a minority of 4435 on the total vote polled by the three candidates opposing him. The folly of splitting the vote against the Labour Socialists could hardly have been better illustrated ■ than in the Christchurch result, and it is to_ be hoped that, before another election comes round, the of Christchurch will have devised in their own interests some means of obtaining a direct vote between the representatives of the party which has stated its intention of governing Win the interests of one class ottly, and those who are opposed t,o “class-conscious” rule.. A similar 'result , Would , seem to have been inevitable in Wellington bad the citizens of that city failed to reconcile their differences, because the result of the Mayoral election there merely, shows that had Mr Norwood, the# Mayor-elect, met with other opposition, than from the selected Labour-Socialist candidate, the latter must have won the election and, in that event, the City Council would have been dominated in its counsels by a Socialist Mayor. The 11,797 votes which Mr Chapman received were evidently reinforced by a considerable number cast by citizens who were disposed to “give Labour a chance,” for it is noticeable that, with the exception of Mr Monteith, M.P., who as an of the council might be regarded as having special claims on the electors, the only other Labourite elected was Mr R. McKeen, M.P., who came sixth on the list, nearly 3000 votes behind Councillor W. H. Bennett, who headed the poll. The Labour Party paid the penalty of nominating a full ticket for the council in its failure to obtain more than two out of the fifteen vacancies, the elected candidates being well-known business men, eleven of their number having served in the old council. Had the Labour Representation Committee, which was - responsible for the full Labour ticket, played the game on. fairer lines we cannot help thinking they would have done better in the metropolitan contest. As, it is they lost two out of the four seats they held in the late council. Elsewhere, the elections appear to have gone largely in favour of the party of moderation which desires to keep municipal affairs clear of party politics. It has been pointed out by a contemporary that where Labour Representation Committee candidates are elected _ they are not returned as representatives of the people, but merely us the delegates of a

section of the people. That is Very true. As delegates of that section 1 their policy is controlled largely by the committee selecting them, and it cannot be said that such a State of things makes for the good of municipal government. “The intervention of a political party in local elections is not,” as the Otago Dally Times pointed out the other day, “a development that improves on acquaintance. No attempt has ever successfully been made to justify it.” And it can only bo regarded as an “unwarrantable intrusion.” Where a municipal council controls undertakings that represent a large amount of capi,tal, upon which the ratepayers have to find the interest, and its powers are limited by the General Assembly, it is very undesirable that people with little or no knowledge of trading concerns or of finance should be elected to administer the affairs of the municipality. There is an obvious danger that they will, as the Sydney City Corporation has done under Labour control, enter upon costly and unremunerative undertakings in the management of which corrupt practices inevitably creep in. No more glaring instance of the mismanagement of a city’s affairs has ever been placed on record than that contained in the very gruelling report of the Royal Commissioner who recently investigated the administration of Sydney’s municipal affairs by its Labour. Council. Charges of corruption made against individual members of .the council have been fully sustained, and, so great has been the scandal created by the publication of the report, that the New South Wales Premier, Sir George Fuller, is making it one of the issues of the election campaign in which ho 1 is engaged. Admitting that the mn* 1 jority of our Labour Socialists may be honest in their intentions, we cannot ; help remembering that whenever and ; wherever Labour administration has 1 taken control of either local or State f 1 overnment in Australia, the rule has een one of spendthrift., extravagance 1 and, in too many cases, it has, unfor--1 tunately for the Labourites, been de--1 monstrated that those in control of the ; affairs of either municipality or State have been more anxious to serve their : own interests than those of the people generally. It is a thousand pities that 1 party politics should be introduced into local government affairs. Labour must accept the responsibility of their introduction, and it cannot complain if the good seme of the electors leads them to reject the offer of the services of such candidates as it puts forward.