The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1917. MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16234, 2 April 1917, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1917. MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

The business of electing a new ■Mayor and Council which f jills to be discharged this, month is i not one to be treated carelessly because the war continues. If the roads are bad or other affair's appear to' be 1 mismanaged by the town's" rulers, the -public are as quick to find fault in war time as at any other time and, as has Minted out by a correspondent, the real opportunity l of tlie puljlic to ensure that municipal matters will go well and not badly is given, not when ; mistakes occur, but when they elect the, representatives who must control them. As the Council is, soj .will'its administration be, and, as the administration may affect the whole community, in nocket as well as in convenience, the importance of securing the bestCouncil that can be obtained should be plain to all., It is that • war conditions affect the Council by .requiring* that its policy shall be one of caution rather than expansion during their continuance, but it caji reasonably be expected that before the Mayor and Council who will be elected this month for p, two years' term go out of office the war will have ended, in which case the new governing body may have to face of larger import and more difficulty than for some time past have had to be decided. A town of the size of Timaru should have some room for choice in electing Councillors, and we hope that this year the number of nominations will not be, limited, as it has been <renerallv. to' only a few more than the number of vacant seats. Civic office should be regarded as an honour,

and there should be no lack 1 of aspirants possessed of the ability : to serve the public usefully. .We look to the usual process of deputations to increase.the number of ' both Mayoral and Council candidates within the next few da vs. ' l ir | Mr, guinness finds himself un--1 able to stand aguin. Very o*enei ral satisfaction would have been felt, .y?,e, have no doubt, if Mr Guinness, -yho lia-s served three | years, could have continued Mayor, at least " for the duration : of the war." Both he and the I Mayoress ;*lave/done so much I earnest ,and' valued work m directing local-efforts'* that have I been required by the- great strug- | gle, that they might have been | held to have earned .the, right to I'' see it through"." 4 ,Mr GuinI ness finds, however,>tfiat ; he could i only continue to act .as -Mayor at i the cost of an sacrifice i <>f bis private business, and the public certainly -is not entitled " i to ask for greater sacrifices from one who has set a model exaifnle s to it since the war bee*an. Whoever sucoeeds the present Mayor, and whatever new records may bo made in future in the more normal phases of'municipal the war services of Mr and Mrs Guinness will always be remenn bered gratefully.