The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1917. COUNCIL ELECTIONS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 16 April 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1917. COUNCIL ELECTIONS.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimarino News).

The biennial municipal elections are drawing nearer, and the nearer they come the less interest there.seems to be displayed therein. There are exceedingly important issues at stake which might form the basis for more than one public discussion, and yet no move is made. There was considerable public enthusiasm displayed a few r weeks ago, and it then seemed as though electors were to have a fairly wide choice from which to select the administrators of the borough affairs for the ensuing two years, but interest has worn off, and here we ar e within just about a week of election day and no one knows who is coming forward for municipal honours as they are termed. It is a fact, look at it from whichever standpoint on e will, that the public business of this town

needs as careful handling, at the present time and in the near future, as that of any borough in New Zealand, and it is certainly the duty of every business man, who is a ratepayer, to be ready with his services if he feels they are needed. The fact that no change in the personnel of the Council can be made for two years accentu-

ates the importance of present-day council elections over those of the past, in which two or three retired every year and others were elected to fill their places. It is not a healthy sign that there should be a lack of desire to select the best administration the town can furnish, nor does it denote th e presence of those feelings of loyalty and patriotism that most men display in their own private affairs. Municipal business has to be conducted by someone, and if electors allow a backward drift to set in through their diffidence and failure to rightly appraise the importance of setting up a capable administrative body, there can be no virtue in complaints they may make about loss and inconvenience that may follow as the result. There has been much street talk about the electrical and water services also about improvement of footpaths, particularly where traffic is very heavy. Footpaths along shop frontages certainly need attention; what was adequate in days of a twentieth of the traffic is not conducive to an extension of business now. Those who have had actual experience in upcountry town building know that it is extremely necessary to improve the business centre so as to win back the huge volume of business that goes from the surrounding country to larger and older centres of population. Next to perfect sanitary conditions and essential public conveniences the attractiveness of the town should have public attention, simply because, more than those things that are essential, it is a means of drawing people to town, increasing trade of every kind, and of raising the value of every inch of land and every description of property in and immediately around the borough. It operates also in raising the value of farm lands; we have the invariable evidence that the greater the prosperity of the town, the higher the value of the farm lands Avhich draw supplies therefrom. It is in ratepayers’.!,best interests to exert every possible effort to make their town attractive, and it is equally .to the .advantage of. every farmer to be loyal to his town, and to draw all his f supplies from .fit, because by so doing he easily puts a pound or two per acre on the' value; of his estate. This-jour-nal will oppose any policy or thing it may think is trivial, and not in the town’s best-' interests, but it will oppose no elector who may be patriotic and loyal enough to offer his services in th e conduct of the public’s business. If is the duty and right of every man on the borough electoral roll to offef himself for the Council if he feels that h e has the ability, desire, and enthusiasm that would make him a useful member, and it would be most improper and unpatriotic of anyone to deter any elector from taking such a course. We urge these who are contemplating nomination tc realise that it is now time their names were before the.; electors and some idea given of their views ’on municipal matters, both generally dud particularly.

ASTRIDE HINDENBURG’S LINE. “We are moving astride the Hindenburg line,” said Field-Marshal Haig, in his latest report from the West front. This much-vaunted line, the segments of which were named after the most blood-thirsty barbarians of German history, is under the stride of British warriors of quite another class, and it will have to be abandoned. The men who ape Attila, and Siegfried, and Ot-ho, to-day are having

to cower before the swora or me British soldier. The Kaiser came with unprecedented numbers, and with unprecedented preparations to subdue the world as did Attila, Otho and Charlemagne of old, ana beside

old-time performances he Inis proved a most miserable failure. While the

strength of Britain was being mar

shaken, he overran the countries of

i ; ie weak, unprepared peoples, -but with a force equal or stronger than his own against him, he is being driven back from the conquered territory he has desecrated. His motives have been discovered to the world, and the world has risen against him, to thwart and crush him, and to for ever

render him and his successors incapable of again giving vent to their spasms of blood-lust. No better news has reached us for some time than that the British armies are astride the Hindenburg line. The shades of their forbears hav e availed the Kaiser and his chief barbarian, Hindenburg, nothing; their invocations were fur something so unsavoury that even those .old specialists in blood lust and barbaric torture, viewed them with surprised horror, and were afraid to grant them. With our men effectively astride the Hindenburg line, there is no line in France that the barbaric invaders can successfully hold. They are going, not at their own pace, but at the pace British guns are dictating; they cannot even find time to take their guns and war material with them, or lo devastate the country they arc being driven from, as is their cus-

tom. They are going in such a great hurry that more time will be required to make a thoroughly organised stand than it will tak e the Franco-B’ritish men to drive them over the river Meuse into their own country. The huge number of prisoners, and the colossal haul of guns and Avar material, made by the British alone, is convincing evidence that the correct designation of Germany s strategic retreat is just plain disastrous defeat.