THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1935. THE CITY MAYORALTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22566, 9 May 1935, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1935. THE CITY MAYORALTY

Thk majority of the electors in Dunedin City would have desired a different result of the contest for the city mayoralty than that which has been obtained. They have shown this by their votes. For the second time, Mr Cox has been returned by the votes of a minority of the electors. In a poll of 27,684 valid votes, 12,077 were recorded in his favour. A result of this nature was always probable from the time that three candidates, each of them with a strong following, were put in nomination. It was inevitable that vote splitting such as was due to the. presence of both Mr Marlow and Mr Black in the field would be exceedingly helpful to Mr Cox, supported as he was in this election by a party which is ceaselessly active and is organised from election to election and from year-end to yearend. And, as long as a regard for the general benefit of the community is subordinated to personal ambitions, there can be no safeguard against the election of a candidate whose return is regarded by the majority of the electors as inimical to their interests. The die has been cast, however, and Mr Cox is to be congratulated upon the fact that he has retained the confidence of thousands of electors who voted for him two years ago and that he secured the support of a substantial proportion of the entire electorate. As the successful candidate, he must be accepted by the people of Dunedin as their chief citizen for the ensuing three years. More than that, they must yield him the respect that is due to the important office to which he has been re-called and afford him such assistance as it is in their power to render in the maintenance of its dignity. Mr Cox is highly fortunate in the circumstance that, twice returned on a minority vote, he will, upon the completion of his term of office, have occupied the mayoral position for a longer continuous period than anyone else has since the establishment of municipal government in Dunedin seventy years ago. Why the Legislature should have thought fit to extend the mayoral term in New Zealand to three years, while the term of a mayoral office is generally throughout the Empire limited to one year, it is difficult to imagine. Its action in so amending the law will necessarily have the effect of precluding many persons who serve the public conscientiously and faithfully as members of the City Council from ever realising a hope that that service may some time be acknowledged by their election to the highest office that is within the gift of the electors. On the present occasion the voters were afforded the opportunity of bestowing on Mr Marlow a well-merited recognition of valuable service, ungrudgingly rendered, over a long period of years in his capacity as a member of the City Council. More than 10,000 electors considered that the honour of the mayoralty might justly be conferred on him as a mark of thenappreciation of the public work which he has performed and of his sterling worth as a citizen. It is to be regretted that his defeat has the effect of excluding him, temporarily at all events, from the Council table, but it should be a matter of satisfaction to him that he polled so largely as he did in a contest in which his chances of success must have been prejudiced by the splitting of the anti-Labour vote. It was unfortunate, by reason of the inevitable dissipation of this vote, that, resisting the suggestion that he should withdraw, Mr Black persisted in his candidature. The large number of votes that were recorded in his favour constituted a handsome personal tribute to him, but the conclusion seems irresistible that they were a factor that contributed to the victory achieved by Mr Cox.