Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1898.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2112, 23 June 1898, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1898.

Writing the other day on the attitude of New South Wales towards the Commonwealth Bill, when the greatest single question their records can show was put to the people of that Province, we enlarged on the perils of apathy and local jealousies. The eyes of the world were upon the Australian colonies that day. iWould they follow the example of the American States and unite, or allow their petty jealousies to obscure their vision, and shameless indifference to - clog their patriotism ? Europe swarms -with those that fear us, and with the fear that is the mother of hatred, the world at large views the growing desire: now being shown by the scattered . Anglo-Saxon peoples, for union. Small wonder then that the Continental Press found matter for jubilation in the apathy and narrow views of New South Welshmen ! How strange the silence ; the averted looks of the Mother Country and Canada, which long ago sunk the differences j that separated her provinces and bound | them in the indissoluble bonds of tbe Dominion ! South Africa spoke out in contempt—the rest were silent. By their apathy the citizens of New South Wales struck the greatest blow, not at the Federation of the Australian colonies only, which her action, or father inaction, has set back twenty years, but at the Empire. Is there no lesson for us in the present humiliation of the Mother colony ? We are supposed by our neighbours to be in the throes of an election ; the first municipal contest held in the Borough of Te Aroha. hat we want and what we are determined to have, as far as we have any voice in the matter, is the election of the best men for the offices of Mayor, Councillors, and Town Clerk. We shall hot be con tent to sit on the fence and let matters take their own course. Next Tuesday week is the sth of July, and on that date the burgesses, and who they arc Mr Gilchrist in his letter in Tuesday’s paper made abundantly clear, and we beg of them not to allow the question before them to become obscured by side-issues which have no bearing on the real point; namely, who are the best a® 1 fittest men to represent us in the municipality. For ourselves we cannot help wondering at the indifference of people. There is ho question as to the must fit and-proper person to occupy the mayoral chair—namely, Mr Thomas Gavin. 'That is pretty generally conceded. In fitness for this particular office, from nearly every point of view, he is head and shoulders above every other possible candidate. In municipal contests, generally speaking, there are two classes of candidates put forward, those belonging to the old school, and those belonging to the new school. Mr Gavin recommends himself to the supporters of both, occupying as he does a position between the two. He is a comparatively young man, with all the aspirations and sympathies belonging to his years ; but he got'his experience in a goodly company of his seniors. He, we can readily believe, would be the first to admit the'value of the lessons he learnt from his long association in various public-bodies with the elders in the community, and they, we can as readily conceive, would ba the first to admit the unwisdom of listening to their friends, and emerging from an honourable retirement to obstruct the logical course of events which demand a younger and stronger man for the proper discharge of the duties and heavy responsibilities of the office of Mayor in such a vigorous young borough, as Te Aroha is likely to prove. But the question of who* should be elected to sit at the council board opens a wide field for speculation, and until we see the list of nominations we do not feel inclined to pursue the subject. We can quite imagine that to some the publicity—the thankless publicityattached, to service in a public bodv is distasteful; but, in the interests of Te Aroha, which now is at the most critical period of its existence, let such allow themselves to be nominated. It is their plain duty. Next year will witness a change in our fortunes. The thermal springs are our most valuable asset, as we have said before, not once, but a score of times. The enhancement of the beauties and attractions of

the town demand no less than the water supply, drainage and lighting questions most careful consideration. On the other hand we say to those who intend entering the lists that it is no trivial business they seek to undertake. The labours of the councillor do not end when he leaves the council chamber nor are his hours limited to the sittings of the Board. Unless a man feels he has a genuine call to serve his town in a public capacity, he has no right to seek office, and anyone seeking the suffrages of the electors of this Borough through unworthy personal motives is dangerous to the commonweal, and sooner or later such motives will beray him.