COUNCIL BY-ELECTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23083, 7 July 1938, Page 12

COUNCIL BY-ELECTION

More than 20,000 of the city electors recording their votes on May 11, when a new council was chosen, decided yesterday, it seems, that to vote in the by-election to fill a vacancy was not worth their while. The voters on the former occasion, reasonably estimated on the figures for the mayoralty, numbered 42,918 ; those voting yesterday numbered 22,158, a difference of 20,760. This manifestation of apathy, whatever individual electors may say in explanation of their indifference, is to be deplored. It shows how quickly public enthusiasm in local government can wane. Byelections seldom, it is true, attract as much interest as do contests coming in the regular way, but so marked a decrease of votes after the lapse of a few weeks should not pass without regretful notice. That election and this furnish additional data emphasising the unfavourable comparison. The candidate then highest among the successful received 22,996 votes, the one lowest in that list 17,407. Yesterday Mr. Bailey scored only 11,398 and Mr. Butcher 10,760, a considerable drop in both instances, particularly in that of Mr. Butcher, for in the previous contest their figures were respectively 14,239 and 17,211. Mr. Bailey, that is, was then 3169 shoi't of winning a seat, and Mr. Butcher 197. The latter may justly complain that, having previously got so near to election, on a more l-epresentative poll, he should yesterd.ay have been deserted by 6451 ; while Mr. Bailey, in spite of his success at the by-election, was yesterday still 6010 short of the number he needed at that larger poll to secure a seat. However, such comparisons point a moral for the electors rather than the by-election candidates. Possibly the thought that little was at stake, in view of the present composition of the council, induced a disinclination to vote ; but this way of looking at things is scarcely commendable. It must be put against the fact that, for a by-election, the poll of 33 per cent of those on the roll was much larger than any previous by-election of the kind had produced.