THE MAYORAL ELECTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18972, 25 March 1924, Page 4

THE MAYORAL ELECTION

The result of yesterday’s Mayoral election, while a matter upon which the ratepayers may congratulate themselves, caused no surprise. The verdict of the-burgesses is such as to permit of no appeal or question. It is an unmistakable mandate to Mr. Hope Gibbons to try to put Wanganui’s affairs in order, and it is at the same time a complimentary expression of belief that Mr. Gibbons is the man for the job. Fortified by the weight of public opinion and support, Mr. Gibbons may be relied upon to du much for the Greater Wanganui of which he will be the first Mayor. It is to be hoped he will have the support of the Council in the difficult work before him; the councillors must qccept yesterday’s vote as a plain and unvarnished indication that the ratepayers are not satisfied with the way in which affairs have been allowed to drift. On the Council the people will keep a watchful eye, and factious or foolish opposition may be expected to reap its reward. We congratulate Mr. Hope Gibbons on his elevation to the Mayoral chair, and we congratulate the town upon the selection it made. Mr. Richardson may take to himself the consolation that his defeat was due to the cause with which he was associated rather than to the estimate of his personal character. The esteem in which he is rightly held as a citizen will not be lessened by thg defeat he has sustained. In good faith he championed the old regime, and his mistake was in failing to correctly estimate the extent to which that regime had fallen into disfavour. To those who counselled his ill-advised candidature, and not to the electors who impartially performed their civic duty, Mr. Richardson must attribute the responsibility for his rejection.