CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 252, 3 April 1915, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

CANDIDATES FOR MUNICIPAL elections.

To the Editor

Sir, —Municipal elections should not bo conducted on the lines of party politics. Local patriotism has nothing to do with national, and still less with Imperial, qucstionsAjome might say that si:cU advice is both impracticable and un.vi.-,c, impracticable because to one who p#n.l no attention to municipal affairs but is interested in national questions, party politics may be the only means of knowing a candidate's ability or worth; unwise, because no better test could exinr.

The alleged impracticability is not admitted. A man can always entju're among his neighbors or associates, wh> have kept their eyes and ears open to .mmicipal mattt;. ml who kniv 4ho kind of man that is needed. The allegid unwisdom is equally baseless. A man s political prejudices have nothing to 'to with bis fitness for municipal oltire. Even if they had, the candidates elected cannot l;e expected to do their work well, unless they arc followed and critici-si'd, blamed or supported by an intelligent opinion on the part of the community which they represent. A ma„ who has give n proof of practical ability in any line of life is likely to be fit for muni'ipal office, whatever views he may happen to hold about the. affairs of the nation. The qualifications to be looked for in a candidate for cilice are that he possesses the necessary leisure, that ho takes a genuine interest in the well-being of the locality, and that he is a man of business experience. The second of these is the most important of the three. It !s the duty of the electors to find out such candidates and not allow themselves to lie led away by any other consideration than that of securing the beat man.- I am, etc.,

R. A. HAUTNETT Mt. Messenger, March 31st.

BASIC SLAG.

To the Editor

! Sir, —Some days ago a correspondent i of yours, Mr ,Toe B. Simpson, writing I on this subject of basic slag and t:ic ['establishment of iron smelting locally, I wrote in such a manner as to suggest that a plentiful supply of slag would ; be the natural result of iron and -steel smelting and refining in New Zealand. Will yon please tell us, Mr Ed iter,' whether tin; inference is correct or otherwise? I understand that basic slag is tiie by-product,- not of iron smelting, but of refining steel by the Bessemer process in order to get rid of the phosphorous, which is a detriment to th:: steel, and forms the mauurial const'rtu- j ent of slag as used by the farmers, "i am also und.r the impression that phosphatic iron ores are rare in New Zealand) and that our ironsand, in particular, i-i remarkably free from phosphorus, '<fo! go further into the question, one would need to know whether the proper '•bases," lime and magnesia, are of Un proper quality in this country for slag purposes, and whether they are to i\found in quantity and in proximity to the iron.—l am, etc.,

FARMER. Mokau, March 27th.