Local Body Burden

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31330, 29 March 1967, Page 12

Local Body Burden

Those who were inclined to underrate the unpaid work of city councillors may have revised their ideas after reading the Deputy-Mayor’s outline to the annual meeting of the Christchurch Citizens’ and Ratepayers’ Association of the many and heavy calls on their time and energy. Their work does not begin or end with the three-weekly council meeting. They also have to attend many meetings of committees —some councillors, Mr Smith estimated, as many as 130 to 150 council and committee meetings in a year. Few of these meetings are brief; and for the conscientious councillor they entail many additional hours of study of officers’ reports, consultations with staff and committee chairmen, and inspections of council works and property. Mr Smith’s advocacy of an enlarged council, which would lighten the burden on future city councillors, should be welcomed by the Labour Party opposition. Both organisations have had difficulty at times in persuading well-qualified men and women to “ run for office ” in the certain knowledge that they will get more kicks than ha’pence as a reward for the many hours they give to the city’s business. The proposal would be better received by the public if Mr Smith had suggested means by which the average elector might be enabled to make a more intelligent choice from the consequently increased number of candidates.

It is a pity that the Citizens’ Association seems to have lost interest in the ward system of voting. Perhaps it feels that the system would be disadvantageous to candidates who are not resident in the city. This is a risk that should be taken. Most electors might be persuaded to interest themselves in sorting out four or six candidates from a field of 12 or 18: it is highly likely that, even with the extended voting opportunities suggested by Mr Smith, their civic zeal would flag long before they had completed the task of picking 25 or 26 out of a ballot paper containing 70 to 80 names. A ward system of election seems to be the necessary accompaniment of an enlarged council.