Evening Post. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1921. CIVIC CHOICE: LABOUR'S REVERSE

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 100, 28 April 1921, Page 4

Evening Post. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1921. CIVIC CHOICE: LABOUR'S REVERSE

At time of writing the figures of the City Council elections are not complete, and as we have not had opportunity to Analyse them fully, and to compare the Labour votes with Labour votes in other years, it is premature to define the magnitude of the Labour defeat; but that the defeat is heavy there can be no doubt. Probably, within the next few days, Labour will marshal all the mitigating circumstances that it can discover. It will try to calculate what representation it would have in the City Council if the voting were proportional as in Christchurch (where, by the way, every Labour candidate is believed to be rejected except Mr. Sullivan, M.P.), and it will argue that, after all, the securing of 7000 votes in a Mayoral vote of 20,000 is.not so bad (ignoring the fact that many of the 7000 are anti-Wright Tather than pro-Hickey votes). But, after allowing all discounts, the fact will remain that Labour has suffered a heavy defeat in Wellington, and apparently in Christchurch, Dunedin, and New Plymouth also; and no amount of explanation will disguise the fact that the primary cause is not the lack of proportional representation, nor hard luck over the fifteenth seat, nor the' alleged misrepresentations of 1" the capitalist press," but .simply the extremist- character of Labour leadership and of the manipulators of the Labour machine. Red fanaticism in certain quarters, and Bed hypocrisy in certain other quarters where there exists a tactical desire to keep in line with the fanatics, have alienated thousands of votes cast by men who are workers in the best sense of the word. What other factor pould account for a supposed workers' candidate polling from 30 to 40 per cent, of votes in a municipal electorate endowed with the Parliament* ary franchise? •■ .

The Post has already said that it would not expect, and would not welcome, the total exclusion from the City Council of Labour, even though extremist;led. According to present calculations, the electors have placed Labour Temarkably close to the exclusion line, and have made Labour tenure on the City Council sufficiently precarious to constitute a warning to the movement to clean its stable. We have, not the slightest desire to utter war-whoops over the fallen Labour Councillors, but we hope that their experience will help Labour to rise to something better than the claas-war, and to realise that neither Labour nor Capital can succeed without co-operation. Narrow sectionalism, impertinent definitions of " useful people, 1' and the Red attitude generally, are out of place in a co-operative enfranchised democracy, and especially in a municipality which. is liberal in ite dealings with employees and which, above all others, subsidises a certain section of worker out of its tramway revenue. The reduction in the number of City Councillors who hold their seats tinder the orders of the Red-ruled Labour machine is a lesson that should be learned. It is not a sentence passed by Capital, but a popular verdict by ballot, free from all suggestion of " victimisation." As La-pour, according to Mr. Fraser, does not " sulk," tho City may reasonably hope to see the continued cooperation of its remaining Councillors with their non-Labour colleagues, and a closer approximation of the movement generally to the ideals of evolutionary progress.

The-City Council generally appears to be the practical body we hoped for. It contains a good leaven of business capacity and of local body experience; and the electors generally have realised that their duty at the ballot-box is municipal and not political. Next to the loss of Labour seats, the moat ;notable feature of the poll is the gain of seata by women, one of whom is among the elected fifteen. Never before has Wellington had a lady City Councillor, and the innovation is full of promise. In the Mayoral voting, the emphatic character of the endorsement of Mr. Wright by the iesponsible electors has been stated by no one more clearly than by Mr. Hickey, ■who made a very tactful, and at the same time candid, post-election speech. Mr. Wright is encouraged by Mr. Hickey to go on with his programme. That programme, for which the outgo-ing administration secured ratepayer-sanction, is of great constructive importance. The initiation of comprehensive civic improvements would be a serious duty at any time, and doubly so in a time of deflation, when all men in spending positions need to have one eye on the financial difficulties of the present, and the other eye on the productive necessities of the near future. Greater ■ Wellington isjlucky in having in Parliament its new Mayor and its old one; and, as Mr. Wright points out, Greater Wellington now covers a territory represented by five members of

Parliament, so-that the municipal need* of the capital Bhould not lack representation in the central governmental authority. All these things are important, because there is ahead a period requiring courage as well as caution. Yesterday's, vote, is a vote for prudence, but a vote for progress also, and Mr. Wright has a rare opportunity to serve the community in both capacities.