HAMILTON BOROUGH COUNCIL ELECTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 971, 12 September 1878, Page 2

HAMILTON BOROUGH COUNCIL ELECTION.

The election of three out oi six candidates before the bnrgesses for seats in the Hamilton Borough Council takes place to-day. This election has been productive of a considerable amount of feeling, and more interest has perhaps attached to it than to the first election, when the whole body of the Councl was returned. The retiring men are Messrs Dawson, Potter, and Coates, and, as might be expected, there is a pull to see which side the borough can get, if not three, at least two residents in out of the three. The question of sides is one which we have always deprecated as about the poorest standard of ability or fitness in a representative to which electors can look. The candidate who, in whichever part of the borough he may reside or be more largely interested, will not attend equally and, impartially to the interests of the borough as a whole is not worth voting tor. The chief qualifications to be looked to are ability, integrity, and a willingness to devote time and trouble in the public service. If a man does not possess these qualifications he is' fit for the office; if he does not possess them it matters little or nothing in what part of the borough he lives or his interests chiefly lie. Electors will do well to allow judgment and not prejudice to guide them in their choice. -' A. newly elected Council, called not merely to the performance of duties new to them, but to the additional task of organising and bringing a new form of local administration into working order, may well be excused if at the onset, they fall into a few errors, and when it becomes the duty of the electors tc replace a third of the Council, and possibly with new men, there is every reason that they should exercise the greatest diligence and care in returning as members men who will work harmoniously and faithfully with those yet in office for the carrying out the several important public works which have been already initiated.