THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 84, 10 April 1911, Page 6

THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

In Christchurchj even with tho promise of a merry Mayoral contest between Mr. T. E. Taylor and the present wearer of the golden collar, and with the Labour men organising vigorously, the people are reported to be placid and more con- j cerned about the Easter holidays than municipal issues. Wellington lacks the stimulus of a fight for the Mayoralty, but has Labour declaiming daily in or ] out of doors. With all the stir of "the Labour eight," the apathy of Wellington much resembles the apathy of Christchurch. Some of the local Labour candidates have bitterly complained about the indifference of the workers. Yet jfc is not necessarily civic apathy that induces people to stay away from certain public meetings. They are not always assured of hearing doctrine worili while, and if the orators are believed to be sad. men, gloomy of mien aud matter, the counterattractions of the moving pictures and the straight-out farce-comedies prevail. This preference for light fare may be deplorable, but it has set in beyond the po-srer of mere vain regrob to shift. It requires a "moving story" to win against the moving picture. Big men are needed to capture the big crowds. However, the Labour candidates hay« deserved a far better fate than the almost desert air' of their meeting places. They have worked hard' in a belief that their activity is for the public good, and hard work in such a belief is respectable, even if someof tbe work is on undesirable lines. A mistake in good faith, is better than stagnation in no faith. So tho empty benches, after all, though a rbproach to the "Labour ticket's" friends, are a compliment to tha pertinacity of the "ticket." On paper, to date, the burgesses have d large list of candidates, but the platforms of some of the thirty aspirants plainly brand them as impossible. One has announced "a reduction of the dogtax" and councillors' personal supervision of dust-bioa. Other gentlemen, equally eager for the people's Guffr.-ag.eß, have been similarly comic in their manifestoes. Nobody, of course, lias an "axe to grind." Was there ever a candidate with an "axe to grind?" One may note again that boundless faith of the candidate to give a very large something for nothing or lees than nothing (a reduction of the rates). The same pretty platitudes abound, and few of the appeals for support have revealed any deep insight into municipal affaire. The people are invited to have an even larger faith in the candidates than the candidates have in themselves. Possibly some of the vague expositors will become more specific between now and 26th Apxil ; they have left much to say if they hope to prove that they are to be trusted with an important part in managing the city's very large affairs.