THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, MAY 3,1929. THE LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20707, 3 May 1929, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, MAY 3,1929. THE LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS.

The number of candidates in the field and the circumstances that generally attended the election campaign may have led to some expectation of a considerable change in the personnel of the .City Council as the result of the polling on Wednesday last. The most striking feature of the election is that, with one exception, all the retiring councillors who sought reelection were returned. That constitutes no mean compliment to the members of the Council of the past two years after all that was said in criticism of them during the election contest. It shows that the people of Dunedin have seen no reason to regard the Council as unworthy of confidence, but have rather been impelled, in the face of the attacks that were made upon it, to express their recognition of its' capacity for the task of civic administration, and of its zeal in the interests of the city and the ratepayers. Judgment and common sense were displayed in the verdict. Of the new councillors, four in number, two 'are well known as former members of -the municipal body, while the two others are men of business training, with what may be considered the additional qualification that their election involves the representation of particular suburban districts. They should be useful members of the council, A significant circumstance was the position occupied on the poll by candidates whose names did not appear, on the Labour “ticket.” With an exception in the case of Mr Munro, whose election is to be regarded as really a tribute to his personal qualities, as apart from his political opinions, the Labour candidates made an inglorious figure in the result of the poll. The vote recorded for the most largely supported, among its twelve candidates for the Council 1 (exclusive of Mr Munro) was, lower than that secured by any candidate having the support, of the : Electoral Association. A similar result was to be observed in the other local For the seven vacant seats on the Hospital Board" five Labour candidates were nominated, and these all appeared among the six candidates who were lowest in the voting. As regards the ■ Harbour Board it is the same story. Mr Munro’s return to this body was again not attributable to the fact that he was on the Labour ticket, but to his services in the past and his personal qualifications. The four other Labour candidates for the Harbour Board were at the tail-end of the voting list. To a large extent the electors will have been guided, according to their predilections, by the organisations which prepared and submitted lists of candidates whom they invited the public to support. But an effect or accompaniment of this differentiating between candidates is. curiously exemplified in one direction at least. In the case of the voting for the Harbour Board—if Mr Munro is, left out of the reckoning—the difference between the highest and the, lowest number of votes polled by Labour nominees was 2400, In the case of the City Council' there was a difference in similar circumstances of nearly 1600 votes, while in the case of the Hospital Board the highest Labour candidate secured over 1700 more votes than the lowest. The general measure of support accorded to the Labour nominees, and its marked variation in individual instances, afford fairly conclusive evidence that the wage-earners themselves are not impressed with the class of candidates for whom the Labour organisation asks them to vote, and that they are not prepared to displace in their favour experienced councillors or candidates whose qualifications are admitted. The attempt to bring party politics into the sphere of municipal affairs has received little encouragement in Dunedin. That is as it should be.