Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1880.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 220, 16 September 1880, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1880.

The annual elections of City and Town Councillors have recently taken place throughout the colony, and the complaint seems pretty general of the lack of interest taken therein. In some boroughs there have been keen contests, but from our recent exchanges from the various towns, we learn that an apethetic indifference to the result has been the rule. It is difficult to account for this slate of things, when the large value of the property entrusted to the care of the Councils is considered, though it is probably owing^to the fact that the individual interest of each citizen in that property is comparatively small, for certain it is that in many of the Councils are to be found men to whose management the ratepayers would not entrust their own estates were they worth only as many pence as the Corporation properties are worth pounds. In Nelson, for instance, in addition to the maintenance of the streets and such other responsibilities as ordinarily belong to a Corporation, the Council is entrusted with the entire control of the gas and water works, and yet it is a fact that the candidate who takes the greatest amount of trouble in hunting up voters and inducing them to go to the poll, is the one who almost invariably commands success. Pertinacity in seeking support is a far surer road to a good position on the poll than the possession of qualifications which would justify the expectation that he in whom they are found would fill the position of Councillor with credit to himself and advantage to his constituents. This is not as it should be. So long as a seat at the Council board is to be got for the asking, it is likely to be lightly esteemed, and this is an evil against which the ratepayers cannot too jealously guard. The remedy lies with themselves. Let them realise the fact that they are banding over to their representatives in the Council an important trust, and let them be proportionately careful in selecting their trustees, and not give their votes to the first man who aska for them, and they will finti as the result that the position of Councillor will be regarded as one of honor, and will be more eagerly tojght for, and consequently that there will be a wider field from which to select their representatives. The apathy that too often prevails at these elections must prove harmful, for the smaller tho amount of interest displayed by the citizens the less likely are they to be well served. At that which took place here last week the total number of those who took the trouble to record their votes was 340. The number on the roll is 944, and, of these 134 were absent, leaving 810 who might have voted, so that more than half of those who should have had a voice in saying to whom they would entrust the control of their property for the next three years were content to leave to others the decision of a question in which they themselves were deeply interested.