A HOPEFUL DAWN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 500, 1 November 1928, Page 8

A HOPEFUL DAWN

rOUGII the City Council is to he quit of its burdensome transport system, it cannot completely shelve its responsibility toward metropolitan transport. Upon the council, with its majority representation on the board, rests the obligation of making its six nominees the men best fitted for their task. The elder statesmen of the council should he content to leave the job to younger men. It is a responsibility calling for vigour, enterprise and up-to-date ideas unshackled by hidebound conservatism.

In its meditative moments the City Council may feel impelled to take yesterday’s vote to heart as still another vote of emphatic no-confidence. Others have been the recent tram' and baths loans, both of which failed miserably. Yesterday the ratepayers of both city and suburbs showed every eagerness to rid the different transport systems of the administration which has made such appalling blunders in the transport policy of the past few years. The counter-votes probably included those of a number who are only suspicious of the Transport Board because it will contain a predominating element of city councillors. The lesson is very plain. The council cannot merely transplant its past policy into the policy of the Transport Board. It must place upon the board men of energy, courage and vision. Having done so, it will give the Transport Board a reasonable start on a path that will, in any event, be sufficiently thorny. The people who voted with such hearty enthusiasm at yesterday’s poll, plumping for the ■ Transport Board with a zest mainly inspired by the desire to put an unpleasant memory behind them, must not expect too much too soon. Even a board backed by a six to one ma jority cannot achieve miracles; but there should, at least, be co-ordination of hitherto divided interests.