Untitled

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 283, 22 April 1913, Page 4

MUNICIPAL APATHY. The first shot in the New Plymouth Mayoral fight will be fired to-night, when the retiring Mayor (Mr. G. W. Browne) will address the burgesses. It is a long time since aspirants for municipal honors have taken the trouble to come before burgesses to discuss questions of moment, and we hope that the departure made by Mr. Browne will have the ell'ect of stimulating interest in the coming elections, and also be rewarded by a large attendance, and be emulated by the other Riehmonds in the field. So far, very few names have been suggested in connection with the seats on the Council, and it looks very much as if we are to be confronted with the same difficulty as has been experienced in the past in the filling of the vacancies. This apathy on the part of our citizens is hard to understand. Just now, the borough lias undertakings on hand that call for the exercise of the greatest care and soundest judgment on the part of the Council as a whole, and the knowledge would, one would have thought, have induced our foremost citizens to come forward and offer to serve the town. Unfortunately, however, most of them do not feel the call to municipal service. It is a great pity. Perhaps this apathetic feeling is the cause of our not having progressed in the past as much as other towns less fortunately circumstanced have done. Its existence is a standing reproach to the town. We hope it will soon be removed, and that the meeting to-night will be the means of awakening some interest in the forthcoming elections; and, what is of more immediate consequence induce some of the representative citizens to offer their services on the Council. At no time in the history of the borough could their services be of greater value or more calculated to advance the interests of a town so pregnant with possibilities as is New Plymouth.