SOMNOLENT CITIZENS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7079, 17 March 1910, Page 6

SOMNOLENT CITIZENS

As only about seve:J per cent, of tns people entitled to rote at yesterday's election in the city 'were sufficiently concerned in the proceeding? to do so, ive cet some measure of the amount of public interest there is in the administration of hospital and charitable aid expenditure. Apparently ths ratepayers of the capital are so inert as to be profoundly indifferent to the manner in which their affairs are eontrolled. This is not a new discovery, of course, for wo havo the same exhibition of sloth year aft/>r year. Even when enormous loan proposals are submitted for their approval they, ref.ch the polling places with great difficulty. Tt is very deplorable thi« lact of attention to civic duties, and at one© a tragic and ludicrous commentary upon the occasional howls that are heard when any particular instance of muddling or extravagance by a local body is revealed by the newspapers. Oyer no kaianga in the Dominion does the spirit of 'Taihoa" brood so persistently as over • Wellington. It is no' excuse to say that the board elected yesterday is a good one. Wo believe it is. The evil feature of this somnolence on the part of the crtiaetna ia that a well-organised . minority ' can capture every local body in the district, and at any time it might b»-on« that would play havoo with public funds. Not until this happens and the citizens learn what it means mix we look for a moderately vigDaarb «litizonship. » «... i : , •'■':'. •". . ■.''.#■ Just at the moment- we find it but! to understand why our vimAwa friends of the "Bed Flag Brigade" failed to seize the opportunity of "socialising" the charitable institutions and hospitals. They had a, most) encouraging chanoo of sucoass if ihey, .had addressed themselves to tine task. The citizens of Wellington deserve a lesson of that kind and ought to get it. Two thousand votes or so out of a possible thirty thousand could without placing great strain on the imag. ination be taken as an indication that the citizens wished to bo relieved of cuch a bore as the management of their business. To speak about an. "extension of local government" jusfc now would seem to bo taking liberties with the collective sense of humour