COMMUNITY SERVICE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 April 1938, Page 6

COMMUNITY SERVICE.

WITHIN a few clays, nominations are to elose, for the membership of local bodies which in most, instances will hold office for the next Three years. The total field covered is wide, involving, as it does, the management and control of local, district and provincial tTlfairs. Amongst the candidates known or likely to be offering themselves for election there are many men, ami women. 1 oo—though these last are still very much in the minority—who have given the community capable and ungrudging service in the past, in some instances over a long period of. years. The disappointing feature, always appears, however, that a considerable proportion of those who are eminently fitted to give valuable service on local bodies retuse to offer themselves as candidates. Even men and women, who lake an apparently, keen interest in local government affairs, and at times criticise sharply the bodies handling these affairs, will often scout the idea of themselves accepting a share 01. the burden and responsibility of local body work. It should be recognised that Ibis state of affairs embodies a dangerous weakness. A fully effective representation of the community is needed just as much on local bodies as in Parliament or in any oilier section of our democratic organisation. In their own interests and those of the community, individuals capable of giving useful service on local bodies ought to think, twice before refusing 1o do iso. The effect of a series of such refusals evidently must be to weaken, if not to undermine the system 01. local government —at all events to reduce it to a lower plane than it ought to occupy. It is or should be sufficiently apparent that a thoroughly effective development of local governmentundertaken by those members of the community best, (pialified to do so —is highly desirable, not only at an immediate view, but as a means of clarifying our national affairs and enabling these to be handled more effectively. At. present the whole machinery ol Parliament and (lovernment in this country is cluttered up with a mass of details that ought to be dealt with by local bodies, but instead are administered by Depart incuts of State. The expansion ol bureaucracy in this country is a thing to he opposed by all good democrats. There is lar too much centralised handling of affairs that are in their nature local and might much more advantageously be dealt with, simply and directly, by local bodies effectively organised. One of the best methods of correcting what is at fault in the existing trend is io build up and strengthen local bodies. That implies and demands a readiness to serve on the part of lhe individuals best lilted to do so. us well as an ability on the part of the electors to recognise and welcome merit and capability when they appear.