LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24530, 12 February 1941, Page 6

LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

It was in October last that the Government announced its decision that the war afforded no justification for the postponement of local body elections. Its decision was reached after an expression of opinion had been sought from local authorities themselves, the majority of which indicated that they were opposed to a course that in their view would not be in the best interests of the electors or the country. In the circumstances the protest expressed at the meeting of the Otago Harbour Board this week against the holding of the elections, which, as required by law, are to be held early in May, comes rather belatedly to be effective. With the elections only two and a-half months away, postponement of them might seem to be impracticable, in the sense that legislative sanction for that course could not be obtained before the resumption of the Parliamentary session on March 12. There is the additional objection that the preparation and printing of the rolls, in which is involved a considerable proportion of the expense connected with elections of this type, would by that time be so well forward, as it is in the case of the city of Dunedin, that no appreciable saving would be achieved. It may be assumed that the Government would have welcomed an opportunity to save the expense of these triennial elections while the country is at war, and it cannot be said that it did not itself seek the guidance of local bodies at a time when it could have taken more effective measures than can be possible at this late hour. Even, however, if the situation now deplored by the Otago Harbour Board is beyond redemption, the question may still be asked whether the parliamentary election should be proceeded with this year, in the abnormal conditions that prevail, or whether extension of the life of the present Parliament would not be the proper course to follow. In this respect the Government has itself created a difficulty by its refusal to sink party issues in the formation of a Government truly national in character. Party questions are thus kept to the fore, at • time when all sane-thinking citizens must be convinced that there is no useful place for them in the conduct of national affairs. They tend to foster division where absolute unity should be the goal, and they are apt, in some minds, to magnify the importance of issues which are of

trivial moment in relation to the gigantic issue of survival that confronts us in this struggle. Members of the Government party would not find the country as a whole unresponsive to a call for persistent and unbroken effort if they were prepared to give a lead in national unity themselves. Extension of the life of the present Parliament, were it sought on the understanding that the drive for absolute unity would itself begin at the legislative centre, would certainly not be held suspect, in these critical days, by the vast majority of the people.