TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 17th MAY, 1944 CHANGE AND CONSEQUENCE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 68, Issue 5944, 17 May 1944, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 17th MAY, 1944 CHANGE AND CONSEQUENCE

WITH the closing of nominations for the public administrative office the citizens are confronted with a decision which will mark another of those periodic evolutionary changes which feature our constitutional form of government. It is an occasion .when both retrospect and prospect may be permissible, for it is surely on the foundations of the past that the future structure may be best established; and now that nominations have closed many gaps may be seen in the personnel of our local bodies—gaps which have to be filled before the administrative machine will continue to function. The people are indebted to those public-spirited men who have served so well in what has been a period of unusual difficulty when, in fact, so many obstacles have confused what might have been the material desire and objective. But in their term of office they have fulfilled a trust which marked their election; they have held intact a machine which is capable of functioning again, and they have survived the many handicaps and difficulties which crowded in upon a most difficult period. It is true that there remains an accumulation of woTks which are of necessity deferred; it is equally true that there arises the undefined certainty that in the coming term new’ methods and devices will have to be discovered if conditions capable of undertaking the demand as well as overtaking the delayed maintenance are to have due and necessary attention. Thus, it is clear, an even greater burden of responsibility will attach to the public office in the future, and it tan well be in recognition of that fact that so many citizens have voluntarily offered their services. Nothing could be more encouraging at this time, and it is a decided inducement for public interest that policies and programmes should be brought so prominently under review. The selection is naturally of candidates, but it is surely not a choice of individuals. Responsible local government is essentially a matter of teamwork; it involves questions of organisation and iarge-scale administration. The law as it has been written in the

Legislature is merely empowering in all of the channels for financing and ! carrying on an expenditure programme suited to the public need; and the law contemplated a composite Board or Council to interpret the economic capacity in accordance w’ith the public need. On the people, therefore, rests the responsibilty of selecting and electing a full team to fulfil all the manifold duties of the public office. That is the responsibility which rests with the pepole—to shape at the election the policies and the programmes in the personnel of those who will act as a team within the limits of the empowering legislation. Perhaps it is within the borough, serving as it does the central point of district activity, and where the need for appointments and amenities is the greater and more varied, that the range of programmes and perhaps of policies can be the more complex. It w’ould, therefore, seem appropriate that a public meeting be held at which all candidates could offer suggestion for the electors’ guidance. In fact, in the coming term, after a Council has been elected, the idea of a quarterly “town meeting ” would have the merit of establishing a closer link between the people and the administrative office, for it is certain that the future tasks will be more speedily and satisfactorily undertaken if there can bq established and maintained co-opera-tive effort on the people’s part. But prior to the elections it would be an admirable thing if at a public meeting candidates and people could get together, survey the prospect, and thus better decide the future.