The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1950 THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 November 1950, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1950 THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

The desire for a change has manifested itself throughout the country in the registration of public opinion in the municipal elections. This desire for change has revealed itself in those areas where the political party lineup has not been in evidence. Against this general feeling there is little that can be done. It is one of the mass psychological movements which is generated by causes too complex to admit of analysis, it followed that where the established order was strong it would suffer some setback and where the balance was fairly nearly established the beam would tip against the general majority opinion. The set of the tide being favourable to change it is not surprising that where the party line-up was established, or elleged sufficiently by one side, the men who are to be in any way identified with the present Government would receive little or no help. It is significant that in the main the block vote has remaineed static, but that the additional votes added to the polls seem to have been added more to one,side than to another. Here a. hasty conclusion should be guarded against, however, for it is unreasonable to assume that all the new voters are inclined to one side. Yet the significance of this phenomenon of the new voter cannot be easily elucidated.

The question which is to be asked concerning the municipal elections is whether Citizens’ tickets are worth while and whether it would not be better for a permanently organised political party to take a hand in the elections against the permanently organised Labour Party. The Labour Party continually avows that the Citizens’ Committees, notwithstanding their temporary life, are but the National Party in disguise. They are able to allege this with some show of justification because those who are not within the Labour camp must of necessity be within both the National and Citizens’ eamps. The refutation of the non-association of the Citizens’ Committees and the National Party under such circumstances, while founded on fact, does not bear a. convincing colour to the outsider. The hardening of the local body administration to party lines will be to the general detriment of civic life, but the present circumstances offer too many advantages to the Labour Party for those advantages to be longer ignored. Party affiliation brings the automatic party vote, non-party affiliation brings no offsetting advantages. In the Wanganui municipal elections Mr. Rogers has scored a resounding success once again. It is significant, however, that in his appeal he made stress of his candidature for the Mayoralty and in this he scored the least votes of all the offices for which he offered himself. Taking the votes cast in his favour in the Mayoralty as revealed by the provisional count, he has secured four votes to Mr. Seivewright’s three, which is decisive enough and should mark the extent of his following. But as he moves from one body to the other away from the election which is th?, most highly contentious to that which is the least contentious his vote does not diminish, but definitely increases. This can only be attributed to the unwillingness of many people to vote consistently against any one man. Realising this several members of the Labour Partv took a leaf out of Mr. Rogers’ book and stood lor several local bodies and in each instance the same result has obtained. Where there has not been an improvement on the City Council vote secured for the City Council in the present election there has been a decided improvement in the vote recorded this time over previous occasions for the other bodies. The policy or the Citizens’ Committee in putting forward one man for one office, a policy which is sound if the efficiency of municipal management is desired, seems to require to be revised. The success of the Labour candidates in securing the top ot the poll positions in the list of the Labour poll would present an easiersubject for analysis were they not all surpaassed by their most virile opponent in the City Council, Mr. R. E. Jack.. Hena the pa tern gets a jolt which seems to defy analysis. It is by no means apparent why, in view of Mr. Jack’s outstanding success, the same factors should not have favoured his colleagues. _ It just did not do so Another singularity of the Council elections is that .the Citizens’ candidates, Mr. Jack apart, occupy the middle positions on the list the head and the tail being provided by the Labour Party candidates. This reveals that the Labour Party’s vote is less consistently spread over their candidates than is that of the Citizens’ candidates, or the before-mentioned 'technique of running for several offices has been the determining factor in providing the most successful candidates of the Labour Party with their The scientific analysis of the election could not be undertaken without the aid of a widespread questionnaire. Nevertheless, the Citizens’ Association can be said to have committed a campaign blunder which was obvious from the start. The Laboui Party . strength was in the personality of Mr. Rogers; the Citizens strength lay in its richness of experienced men who were holding office By nutting all its eggs into the Mayoral contest basket the Citizens met the full strength of the Labour attack by opposing its weakest point and putting its own strength under a handicap that was practically an eclipse. In view of this tactical blundeinng Ihe wonder is that it. emerged with as much success as it did Ml. Rogers an experienced campaigner, appreciating this weakness, paid tribute to the ability of the Citizens’ councillors bu aver ed that they were subjugating their personalities Io that o. ■ Mavorafeandidate. This line of advocacy should have been foreseen bv the Citizens from the start of the campaign. . The disadvantages of having the councillors burdened with justifying their record while the Mayoral candidate cut across then- course SIJ touted by the Citizens’ Ckinniiittee. This lack of co-ordination of the campaign, coupled with the . t ot t e tide : n nublie opinion could have been more disastrous to the Citi zens’ candidates had not public lethargy concerning the campaign ™ ■» i-r -„«*• malic, tai the Latour Party has the greater cause lor selt-eo ■ gratulation.