The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, April 30, 1938. MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Grey River Argus, 30 April 1938, Page 6

The Grey River Argus SATURDAY, April 30, 1938. MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

That civic offices are going scarcely in any case uncontested in Greymouth at the coming elections is a good sign. It will focus greater public, attention upon administration, and induce people to look ahead. No notice need be taken at all of those who piously prate that affairs municipal should not be political. It is simply their own political bias which speaks wheiu they say this. Man is a political animal, and into his everyday life politics enter at every turn. Our evening contemporary actually begins its allusion to next month’s contests by saying they “are of more importance than usual, chiefly owing to the financial effects of the Labour Government’s legislation.’’ That is dragging in politics with a vengeance. If it means that only for the Labour Government’s legislation, this town in particular would have been undoubtedly very much poorer than it is today, we agree that the electors cannot forget the fact when they come to vote. But when it goes on to suggest that the intrusion of party politics into municipal issues “has been forced by Labour organisations,” the question is why, only a sentence earlier, it should insist that the issues raised on this occasion are due to action, not by Labour organisations, but by the Labour Government ? In short, it first raises the party political issue itself, and i that is precisely what is also being done by the candidates for whom our contemporary is playing the part of electioneering agent. It disparages the Mayoral candidature of the Deputy Mayor, first because he is a Labourite, and secondly, because his ability has, in its own words, given him something of a record among local administrators. We should be the last to retaliate by saying that the candidate on whom the “Star” says it is ready to stake its shirt has no such record, though we give him credit for standing again, instead of agreeing with our contemporary that his rejection in the 1935 election “savour-i ed somewhat of electors’ ingratitude.” The “Star” has not made any the wiser its correspondent who has asked whether the so-call-ed “Citizens’ Committee” is not “a few men taking the name of the citizens to further their own ends.” At anyrate, nobody could raise that question as against the other candidates ! There is no ‘•‘hole and corner” business abouti the other candidates, none of' whom, especially the Deputy!

Mayor, lies open to the “Star’s’' insinuation in his regard that he is thinking of any interests other than those of borough welfare. His disinterestedness is. we think, so widely recognised as to need no emphasis, although it might be mentioned that Mr MeKane during, the past three years has given proof of a. disintered■estness which he has not advertised. He has personally negotiated and obtained from both Government Departments and private concerns loans totalling £52,000, including redemption loans, at a cost to the Borough. Council of no more than £6. This he did by' combining such Council business with his own private businessvisits to Wellington. Otherwise the brokerage on those loans would have cost at least £260. He has been foremost—with, of course, the support of some councillors and the acquiescence of others—.in bringing about here ■certain “financial effects of the Labour Government’s legislation,’’ resulting in the Council receiving from the said Government free grants—apart from the usual subsidies—totalling twenty eight thousand pounds. Yet the “Star.’’ in the face of these facts, can think of no better recognition than to say “he should be thinking only of the borough.’’ If the citizens are as shrewd as they have hitherto proved—as. for instance, in approving the sewerage loan of which Mr McKane was so strong an advocate—they will readily see one thing. It is that on this occasion he faces just the same opposition from just the same quarter as he did when advocating the completion of the sewerage system. The citizens may well conclude that those opponents are still hostile to the provision of so absolutely essen-' tial a service for this growing municipality, and that, were they to be in power, they would he very likely to leave the thing onlyhalf done. Should they deny- any intention of this, they- should be called on to explain the song they 1 are making about the overdraft, and where they would retrench. /Some candidates who pretend to 1 be retrenchers, and talked in that strain, did not vote as they talk- ' ed in the end. They want to “have it both ways.’’ The past three years have seen an enormous increase in the value of property 7 here, due to the municipal improvements effected, which have been on a far greater scale than in any- preceding term. It has been merely incidental that the Council has at the same time co-operated most creditably in the work of national recovery by affording greatly needed employment at very- slight cost, since the. State found the great bulk of the wages. But the overdraft itself is being exaggerated in the advertising matter of this mysterious “Citizens’ Committee,’’ the strings of which are doubtless pulled by hidden inter ests with their own axes to grind. Though their properties may havn been largely raised in value through the recent provision of amenities for a growing popula tion, they- yet would begrudge any 7 contribution in the way 7 of a betterment one. Opportunity will be taken to prove not only •that the overdraft is really much below the £15,000 alleged by- the mysterious “committee,’’ but that it has largely been the means of securing for Greymouth more than £lO,OOO of a saving. Meantime, recognising how Greymouth during the past three years has progressed, few citizens will be disposed to adopt the distorted and pessimistic outlook which certain interests—themselves by no. means badly 7 off —ask all to take. The election issue is clear, progress or stagnation. Much has been done, but much remains yet to be done if Greymouth is to grow and improve as a muni cipality- in the way 7 which its opportunities dictate that it should do.