THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Thursday, May 15, 1941. THE MAYORAL OFFICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24607, 15 May 1941, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Thursday, May 15, 1941. THE MAYORAL OFFICE

There has been some comment in northern centres on the apparent lack of public interest in the outcome of the local body elections. Complaints of apathy have come from Auckland, from Wellington and from Christchurch, where small attendances at candidates’ meetings have given cause for apprehension that Saturday’s polls may not be fully indicative of public opinion. In this city, public interest in the campaign has waxed rather than waned with the approach of polling day, and electors who are prepared to look at local administrative problems dispassionately, against the background of civic welfare, and have followed closely the addresses of the principal mayoral candidates, Mr Alien and Dr McMillan —to whom it is natural to look for the core of policy as expounded by the Citizens’ organisation and the Labour Party respectively—should by now be clear as to the direction in which their votes will be cast. On the one hand there is the definite promise pf prudent municipal development in relation to the unusual and necessarily conservative needs of the times. On the other there is the glitter of promise onlypromise that can neither be justified by experience nor supported by conditions as they exist.

It is impossible to survey the mayoral contest without recognising that Mr Alien has filled the office of Mayor for the past three years with dignity and efficiency. He has proved his competence in many ways, both in and out of the Council Chamber. His time, ability and energies have been given unsparingly to the city and in an even wider administrative field—to an extent, indeed, that would not have been possible without a considerable sacrifice of personal interests, domestic and commercial. To the ordinary duties of the mayoral position have been added, during a year and a-half of war, those connected with the organisation and control of the patriotic effort of the city and provincial district, and it would be less than just to suggest that conspicuous success has not attended Mr Allen’s conscientious application to those exacting tasks. In the sphere of patriotic endeavour alone there is work demanding knowledge, experience and patient and unwearying enthusiasm, all of which qualities Mr Allen, has brought to it in the past and will continue to bring to it if, as he has a right to expect, he is enabled to direct it in the immediate future. There should be appreciation also of Mr Allen’s success in securing the location of Territorial training camps at Wingatui and Forbury, and it is certainly not an unworthy desire on his part to be permitted, through reelection to the mayoral office, to continue and, it will be hoped, complete in another term, a general patriotic work freely undertaken and splendidly begun. On the personal side —if questions of competence which the electors can be trusted to decide for themselves are left out of consideration —it seems necessary to add that Dr McMillan cannot possibly, if the size of his panel of patients under the medical benefit scheme assumes considerable proportions, do justice to the claims which the mayoralty would make on his time.

But the issue of the mayoral contest must depend not only on personal but also on public considerations. Under the guidance of Mr Allen and with the support of a majority of the retiring councillors, the city finances have been restored from the deplorable condition in which the last Labour Council left them to one of balanced stability. Citizens will be taking a grave and unjustifiable risk if, resolving on a change of control at this time, they place their trust again in a party that practised “ squandermania ” in 1935-38 and is still making large promises that reveal a seemingly incurable tendency to elevate financial drift to the status of a policy. In the circumstances of to-day no candidate or group of candidates can afford the luxury of vote-catching “promises” that involve heavy expenditure. National requirements are a first call on the purse of every individual in the land. They must be so, for our fate as a nation and our continued existence as a free and untrammelled people hang on the successful prosecution of the war in which we are fighting side by side with the threatened democracies of the world. The electors, if they are aware of their duty, will look with suspicion and distaste on proposals for local expenditure that take no account of the magnitude of national calls and responsibilities. They will insist, in their local administrators, on the capacity to make foresighted and prudent assessment of civic needs; and they will not find that capacity in the politically-minded exponents of “ prosperity for all.”