MR. HISLOP’S VIEW

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 135, 4 March 1941, Page 9

MR. HISLOP’S VIEW

No Physical Bar to Municipal Elections

“I can see no valid reason to deprive the people of their constitutional right to exercise their choice of representatives at 'the municipal elections at the usual time,” said the mayor, Mr. Hislop, yesterday. “There are no physic® reasons to prevent the carrying out of the poll in the normal way. We here, and doubtless so have other municipal authorities, have already set in train arrangements for the taking of the poll. If we were in England other considerations might enter into the matter, such as the constant raiding by the enemy making the carrying out of an election extremely difiicult and perhaps not possible ; no such conditions prevail here. “Again, what does ‘postponement’ mean? Does it mean postponement for a year or for the period of the war and say six months thereafter? Obviously postponement for a year would be useless. I do not know of any person in authority who has been bold enough to suggest that the r war will be over within a year; on the contrary, it is extremely unlikely that that can be so. Therefore postponement for a year would merely put off an election which must sooner or later take place. “It has been suggested that the. campaigning in connexion with municipal elections would divide people instead of uniting them in the war effort. I do not think that would be the effect at all, Discussions at municipal elections are almost entirely confined to the various questions of local body government and’ management, but even if questions of pushing ahead with the war effort did arise, I think the people are still —even more—entitled to express their views. “I regard it as an inalienable right of the people to choose their representatives, and I personally should not like to carry on in office by an extension of iny term made on the fiat of any Minister or by any special Act of Parliament. I feel that if lam to carry on in the normal work of the city, plus the immense, amount of additional work connected with the war, I want to do so with the knowledge that I .have the' support of my fellow-citizens.”