TO-DAY'S POLL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19717, 17 August 1927, Page 10

TO-DAY'S POLL.

The many arguments heard for and against the tramway loan poll face to-day the test of the vote. This proposal has been subjected to much more scrutiny than loan projects usually receive. Apathy has been the great defect of the past. Ratepayers have usually taken civic schemes, and the financing of them, as a matter of course. Few votes have been cast, so that, though the rejection of a loan has been exceptional, consent has often been given by the many by failure to vote at all. There are indications that today's poll will be different. There has been so much controversy over the tramway system and other forms of transport, the-wisdom of making extensions in present circumstances has been so keenly questioned, that an almost unprecedented degree of interest has gathered around the loan proposal. The City Council, by campaigning in its favour, has helped to stimulate the feeling. It is a very good sign, and the outcome will be even better if the result is a heavy vote. For, whatever the decision —and it rests wholly with the citizens to say what it shall be—it is essential that it should be decisive. If, after all the controversy the loan were to be carried by default, it would be a most unsatisfactory ending. If a majority of those entitled to vote disapprove, it is for them to say so at the poll, and not to complain afterwards at the results of their abstention. If the majority feeling is the other way it is just as necessary to have it expressed in action. Many loan proposals have been carried in the past on the votes of a small fraction of the people on the rolls. It is for the citizens to see this does not happen to-day.