THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1935. THE LOCAL ELECTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22555, 26 April 1935, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1935. THE LOCAL ELECTIONS

The nominations which closed on Wednesday for the election of members of the various local bodies are sufficiently numerous to betoken the existence of a desirable measure of interest on the part of the public. The list of candidates includes several names which it is impossible to recognise as those of persons who have rendered service to the community of a character so useful as to warrant the expectation or hope that they might advantageously be entrusted with a share in the management of the public estate. On the other hand, if the electors exercise their privilege wisely and are not influenced by claptrap and sophistry, such as has already been addressed to them from the public platform with the object of capturing their support, they have the opportunity of securing, as their representatives, level-headed men and women of proved ability by whom their interests will be jealously guarded for the next three years. There are omissions from the list of candidates which are to be noted with regret. Four members' of the City Council are not seeking re-election. One of them, Mr J. B. Shacklock, has served the community for many years, including one term of the mayoral office. The electors are deeply indebted to him for the devotion with which he has performed his public duties, and the expert knowledge which he brought to his aid when filling the position of chairman of the Electric Power and Light Committee was of peculiar advantage to them. The absence of the name of Mr J. J. Mariow from the list of candidates for election as councillors is due, of course, to the fact that he is aspiring to the occupancy of a higher office in the reasonable belief that faithful service, ungrudgingly rendered, as a member of the Council for a great many years deserves the recognition which it is in the power of the electors to give when they are choosing their Mayor. Mr H. C. Campbell and Dr Borrie have occupied seats on the City Council for shorter terms than Mr Shacklock and Mr Marlow, and both might fairly have claimed re-election. Mr Campbell's services are not likely, however, to be entirely lost to the city since he is offering himself again as a candidate for election to the Harbour Board, with the affairs of which he is particularly conversant. That Board is, however, now losing the services of Mr John Loudon, who, in fact, resigned from it a few weeks ago. Mr Loudon was for nearly a generation a member of this body, and there is no person in Dunedin more intimately acquainted with its history than he is.

His services on the Board, as member and more than once as chairman, were distinctly valuable, and the public appreciation of them was strikingly expressed by his being placed at election after election at the head of the poll for the return of members representative of Dunedin and St. Kilda. The retirement of such men as Mr Shacklock and Mr Loudon from the public bodies with which their names have long been identified involves the community in a loss that can only be minimised by the exercise of a.wise discretion by the electors in the selection of their successors. It would be a grave misfortune if Mr Shacklock were replaced on the City Council, and Mr Loudon on the Harbour Board, by candidates of the stamp of some of those who are offering their services—by candidates who are entirely lacking in business experience and whose credentials are, otherwise, exceedingly slender.