SECRECY OF THE BALLOT.

Waipa Post, Volume XVII, Issue 963, 3 July 1920, Page 4

SECRECY OF THE BALLOT.

THE unanimous verdict of the ratepayers in the Te Awamutu electric power district in respect to the loan proposal on Wednesday last at least had the effect of doing away with the secrecy of the ballot. Every voter knows how his neighbour voted, but, remembering that the decision was for progress, nobody need be the least disturbed that all legal precautions for secrecy have failed. Indeed, the

voters are to be congratulated. They have created a record for commonsense and good judgment. Seldom, if ever, in the history of local government in this Dominion has a proposal involving so considerable a sum as £120,000 received unanimous consent. The only regrettable feature is the small proportion of eligible votes recorded. The majority refrained from exercising their rights, although it is not difficult to imagine what would happen were they, for any reason, disfranchised. It is not that the smallness of the vote indicates a want of interest, 'but rather that' the general opinion prevailed that the loan would be carried by a tial majority irrespective of how many actually voted. But on a -three-fifths majority the unexpected sometimes happens, and every vote is an assurance against eventualities. The decision, now that it has been given in so decisive a manner, completes the last of the preliminaries incidental to the reticulation of the district and the supply of electric power. And the Power Board may be trusted to leave nothing undone in its efforts to discharge its responsibilities to the people and so secure the benefits and the economy of electricity at the earliest possible moment. With this in viey, what matters it that the secrecy of the ballot did not obtain last Wednesday.