THE CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

Southland Times, Issue 23502, 7 May 1938, Page 12

THE CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

To The Editor Sir, —Having just received a “householder circular” soliciting votes for a pre-selected list of Labour Party candidates for the City Council, I naturally looked to see what their policy or platform was. No inkling of it is, however, given in the circular. No statement that I have seen has appeared in the Press. And as for the candidates giving an account of it in the space nicely provided for them by your paper, you state that they have refused to have anything to do with it. (Perhaps they prefer to sit back and later raise their usual cry of not being given a fair deal by the Press.) Could you therefore inform me: (1) Have the Labour Party candidates for the City Council any policy or platform? (2) If so, what is it? (3) Are there any special planks in such platform which necessitate their intruding party politics into local body elections? (4) If there is a platform, why has it not been presented to the electors in time for them, to study it? To have a meeting on Monday night as the sole means of stating their ideas (as mentioned in The Southland Times today) gives the impression that they do not wish time to be left for them to be too widely known or discussed by Press or public. If not, why have they not stated them earlier? Modern dictators may be able to induce their voters to poll blindly for the men they name—but Invercargill electors will certainly demand some better recommendation than mere selection by some Labour Party body.— Yours, etc., GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE. May 6, 1938.