THE BOROUGH COUNCIL.

Wairarapa Age, 31 October 1924, Page 4

THE BOROUGH COUNCIL.

The week or more that has elapsed since nine members of the Masterton Borough Council resigned their seats has enabled the thinking section of the ratepayers to consider the position and to wonder who should be asked to stand for the vacant seats. There seems to be a general feeling that some at least of the retiring councillors ought to be prevailed upon, if possible, to stand again. Any business must suffer by the sudden removal of the complete board of control, and the affairs of a considerable town like Masterton arb no exception. There are various phases of borough activity —e.g* the Lansdowne loan, the reorganisation of the works department, and the proposed improvement scheme at the Northern Approach—which are, as it were, in nHd-stream, and the success of which must inevitably suffer if the services of certain councillors who have taken a leading part in promoting them are no longer available. We take it that none of the retiring councillors desired that the affairs of the borough should suffer in this way by the sudden withdrawal of their special knowledge and attention. In resigning they have registered their protest against what they considered an injustice. We believe that, having done so, they would now earn the approval'and such gratitude as ratepayers generally are capable of by,’permitting themselves to be nominated for re-election. They would, moreover, by so doing justify the motives which prompted them throughout in the events which led up to the prosecution.