THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 555, 6 August 1920, Page 2

THE COMING ELECTIONS.

The annual general elections for membership of local bodies take place shortly, and it is therefore desirable that ratepayers and others should give some thought to this important phase of public life. It matters not how perfect a system may be in vogue for the guidance of members of local bodies, if the members themselves are not capable and conscientious men the public will not get value for its money, nor will sound progress, be achieved. Unfortunately, elections are often swayed to the detriment of public welfare by personal !>ias, some persons voting for candidates purely from motives of personal friendship and others from base but equally injurious reasons of personal grudge. Both these attitudes should be rigidly suppressed, and the decisions cast according to merit and character. We include "character.'" because ability, if not governed by integrity, is more of a detriment than a help, and should always be taken into account. Perhaps more so than at any previous time in the history of local governance in New Zealand it is essential that the best public men be chosen, because nearly every local body, after marking time during the Great War period, now has substantial loan moneys or proposals to handle, and if the ratepayers are to get 20s in the £ Yftlue in

these days of high wages and heavy costs of materials it. is necessary that policy and administration should both be sound. There' is too much at stake to leave room for the fjlay of petty jealousies and personal animus. We may also remark that in some places in this district there is a desire to effect a "clean sweep," with which feeling we do not entirely hold. Usually, the better method under such circumstances is to try .and secure a body composed of at least half of the old members who have had experience and are conversant with the work in hand, and the balance to be made up of new blood. In this way the fruits of experience are not lost, and neither is there much danger of overconservatism and stagnation. Voters will best conserve their own interests by supporting the ablest men, be they friends or foes, when they enter the ballot boxes.