The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1909 THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14976, 23 April 1909, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1909 THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

The nomination of Labour candidates has invested the municipal elections with quite a new intorest. As a rule tho attitude of the public towards questions of local government is sadly apathetic, and it may even now be premature to congratulate tho city on its awakening. It happens that a poll on the half-holiday issue will be taken on Wednesday, and the presumption is that tho voting will be, on that account, unusually heavy. So far aa the Council elections aro concerned, there is no burning question before the public. Generally speaking, tho citizens seem disposed to regard now enterprises with suspicion, and so long ns existing financial conditions continue wo are likely to have no heavy loan proposals before us. And yet there is an abundance of useful work waiting to bo done. Wellington, which seems to be particularly fortunate in the quality of its municipal councillors, has lately been considering tho establishment of a municipal milk supply scheme. Tho Christchurch Council lias been talking of reforms of tho kind for years past, and is no nearer their achievement now than it was at the

beginning. The? Labour element, if it secures a measure of representation, will bo sure to provoke at least a brisk controversy, and oven if it encounters bitter hostility it will havo no reason to bo dissatisfied with its work. In political agitations a hostile interest is always better than indifference. If, as one of the Labour candidates lias stated, tho workers constitute 65 percent of tho population of Christchurch, they are entitled to have their views expressed by representatives from their own ranks. But wo liopo that while tho Labour candidates are advocating the municipal organisation of the milk supply, municipal markets and quarries, and o-thor schemes of collective enterprise, they will not forget that the ordinary public services have to ho properly maintained. Nobody appears to bo interested in tho condition of tho main streets, and yet wo doubt if the road surfaces in tho Central Ward have ever been in worse condition. If the results we aro obtaining now aro tho best to ho expected from the macadam method, it is obvious that some other system of paving will havo to he adopted. It is ridiculous that tho main streets of a presumably progressive city should be loft with broken surfaces. Tho maintenance of roadways is a big item in tho year’s expenditure, and it seems to us that a substantial saving would be effected in tho long run by adopting some more durable form of paving. The Council will bo all tho better for an infusion of new blood, and wo aro very glad that tho Labour candidates are making a strenuous fight for election. But tho workers’ organisations have suroly not chosen the best men available. At this time of day wo should not havo a candidate for public office telling us, in all seriousness, that be supports tho canal only bocauso it would provido temporary employment for a number of workers. Even in a municipal council there is need for a higher level of intelligence than Is indicated hy such an observation. But tho citizens will presumably measure up the mental capacities of tho candidates for themselves, and when they go to the poll to record thenvotes they ought to ho in a. position to select men whose work will ho a credit to the city.