The Press Monday, July 21, 1930. The Municipal By-Election.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19985, 21 July 1930, Page 10

The Press Monday, July 21, 1930. The Municipal By-Election.

Citizens will be making a very great mistake if they excuse themselves from going to the poll on Wednesday either on the ground that the by-election is of no particular importance or on the ground that Mr McLachlan is certain to be elected. The by-election is important, because it is always important for the electors to assert themselves and plainly decide whatever issue is before them; and the ratepayers will be obliged to Councillor Butterfield, who stated it with crude simplicity the other night. The Chairman of Ihe Finance Committee, he told the Labour candidate's meeting, was " anxious to '• cut down the estimates " by £ 15,000, and they " kneAv what that meant." To ratepayers it means this, that the Council is trying to save, but Labour would rather spend; and the ratepayers who a short while ago declared emphatically against Labour's spending policy and made municipal economy possible should not need to be told that they must now as emphatically confirm their declaration. If they allow Mr Thurston to slip in ahead of Mr McLachlan on a small poll, they strengthen Labour's hand and take a very serious risk of undoing what they were wise enough to do before. Mr Jones's majority was reassuring to many thousands of electors; but it will be a most dangerous reassurance if many electors take it to mean that Mr McLachlan is safe and does not need their help. He is not safe unless every man and woman who wishes and expects him to be elected goes to the small trouble of voting. Labour fought the last by-elcction with full vigour, and helped Mr Jones by arousing citizens to a keener sense of their responsibility than, unfortunately, is usual. It is fighting the present one so tamely and quietly that it can scarcely be said to be fighting at all; but whether this is clever or casual, it is dangerous, because Labour stands a much better chance of winning on a small than on a heavy poll. The Labour vote is more constant and better organised, it loses less by laziness, or hesitation, or over-confidence; anci the lesson of this is that Mr McLachlan's supporters must think, not of his getting in, but of getting him in, by contributing, each one, to as large e majority as possible.