EVERYTHING BUT MONEY

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 92, 19 April 1921, Page 7

EVERYTHING BUT MONEY

THE FALLACY OF PROGRAMME MAKING

BUSINESS RATHER THAN

POLITICS.

(Contributed by the New Zealand Wel-

fare League.)

On Wednesday, 27th April, the elec. tore of Wellington City will be called upon to elect a Mayor and councillors. What does that mean? Does it mean a political scramble to decide which party shall control the city? We know it does not. A City Council is not a. Parliament with a Government party, an opposition, party leaders, party whips, jarty caucus, and in short a party system of government, Rightly regarded, a City Council is just, a Board of Directors for the city, responsible to the citizens, who are all shareholders in the concern.

The New ZeaJand Labour Party is 311 organisation qf Socialists who are trying 40 change city government from a business undertaking to a political machine with all the attendant factors of party conflict, passion, and intrigue. Jn view of the fact that the city is committed to yery large / financial undertakings and important trading concerns, tlie citizens would be wise in opposing strongly any body of men and women seeking to turn the city's gqvernment irjto a mere party scramble for office and preferment. PLATFORM.MAKING. We have just read the New Zealand Labour Party's platform for Wellington City, It deals with everything but where the money is to come from- There iB not a plank in it dealing with finance, Fro.m this standpoint it might be called a scaffold rather than a, platform. Its proposal for increase in number of councillors, coupled as it ja with payment of counpiUprs,'gives jt the true political cast. There is much in the programme that everybody agrees with. We all want the best of everything if we can qnJy get it. The fallacy of this poli* tioal platform-making is in this i that we are not told where the money is to come from. It is all done, to catch votes and thereby secure something for the plat* form builders, but the rest of the citi* zens may f'go ha.ng" by just having to meet the bills \yhich is their share pf the game of political spoils. In order i to buy the ir-amwaymen's votes it is proposed that "representatives of ths Tramwaymen's Union shall he placed on the Management Committee of the tramways." To secure the votes of other corppratipn employees it is proposed that similar representation he given on the various city services. N.QW, if all the co-called Labour candidates were elected tliey could not give the city employees direct representation qn any management committee pf the council- The pro. posal is just a political fraud and an attempt to buy tltP corporation men's support by promising something they have no power to grant, So with a great many qther promises in the programme. They cannot be fulfilled without money, and the truth is that the corporation has npt got the money, NEED FOR COMMON-SENSE. Our advice to the electors is to vote cqmmpu-sanse, Qq not be caught with the party pry fif ''vote Labour,' 1 when that means voting for anyone labelled "Labour," whether they have any knowledge of management and cpmmpn-sense economy or not. You woujc} not put your private affairs into a parsqn's hands just because he was named "Jfcfarm.'t "Liberal," "Labour," pr any other party name; then, why put the city's business jn people's hands for such a silly reason? I The Cjty Council hajs ppwsr to raise £1,708,916 f«r certain specified works, and the new pouncil that has to raise and spend over a million pounds should have sqund administrative ability and not merely "hot-air merohante" or •'programme scene-shifters." Remember, with a counoil in favour of wild prpt posals it wi!l l)e futile to' ask for money, and the city's y/orks of progress canno.t go on without it. Finale, is the key, note of the present situation. To vote common-sense is to chonse citizsm cajicli. dates who are not tied to party, and who will support sound practical pubhu business, mere fancy political programme chasing without consideration of the vital question—where is the money to come from ?