THE ELECTION FOE MAYOR.

West Coast Times, Issue 645, 18 October 1867, Page 2

THE ELECTION FOE MAYOR.

*. TO THE EDITOB OP THE WEST COAST TIMES. S IB — The present contest for the Mayoralty turns altogether upon one issue, and I -think you have very fairly put it before the ratepayers. Shall the highest civic honor which it is in the power of the ratepayers to bestow, be conferred upon a young untried man, or be granted as a reward for public services ? Shall past usefulness, and the sacrifice of time and labor, be ignored ift order to place the laurels upon the brows:of a gentleman who has established no^claim whatever to public gratitude ? - On the one side of this issue, we havo the junior member of the bar in Hokitika; the young barrister who tells us that he has deserved eternal gratitude because he has founded a Literary Society! On the other, we have two men who have gone through an apprenticeship in the public service ; who have worked for the town in a sense that Mr Button never has ; and either of whom it woxild be a very shabby thing indeed for the citizens to discard. Both these gentlemen, however, cannot be elected ; and so long as they both stand they simply divide the interest. If Mr Prosser and Mr Shaw both go to the poll, the probabilities are that Mr Button will slip in, and the legitimate principle of local town government be defeated. Cannot some arrangement be come to by the friends and supporters of these two gentlemen by which their strength may be combined in one common cause, and the principal mercantile town in New Zealand be protected from the scandal of electing for its Chief Magistrate a young Barrister utterly untried in public life ? Surely one or the other gentleman had better retire than run the risk of exposing our mercantile community to this reproach. I throw out my suggestion for what it is worth, And am, sir, youra &c, Johannes Blanco. October 16, 1867.