POLITICS IN LOCAL BODIES

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21365, 8 March 1941, Page 8

POLITICS IN LOCAL BODIES

An effort to eliminate party politics from local body administration in New Zealand was made at the conference of the Municipal Association at Auckland. Because there is no machinery by which a direct approach to the problem can be made, a remit was introduced that section 44 (B) of the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1925 (which makes it an offence to print, distribute or deliver on the day of polling or during the preceding three days an imitation of a voting paper, together with directions as to the method of voting), should be amended to include election “ tickets.” The feeling of the conference was indicated by the fact that the remit was adopted by 64 votes to 32.

Of course it is impossible to eliminate political sentiment from local body administration, and it is as well that all classes of the public should be represented, but such representation is possible, and eminently desirable, without any reference to party politics as such. It is far better that councillors should be elected for their own worth rather than because they belong to this or that political party. Thus would all sections of the community give expression to their own ideas of administration and at the same time promote the efficiency of the local bodies. After all, the real duty of a local body member is to do his best for all the people and not for one section only. “ Tickets ” may be good or bad according to the intention or the amount of common sense behind them. The final decision rests with the individual voter, and it is a strange commentary upon the intelligence of the average man to suggest that he would blindly follow any lead given by an election “ ticket.” Political bias is a strange thing, however, and perhaps it does so influence some people’s minds that they would vote for all the names contained in one “ ticket ” simply because they are put forward by this or that political party. No doubt “ tickets ” will appear again at the forthcoming local body polls and the public will be urged to vote for various blocks of candidates. Happily, there can be no compulsion in such matters in a free country. The matter is worth thought before election day.