LOCAL ELECTIONS.

PROCESS OF VOTING.

THE POLLING TO DAY.

MAYORAL CONTEST. The district electors will have to-day the opportunity of deciding by vote who is to occupy tho Mayoral chair for tho coming two years,, and what councillors are for the same period to direct the destinies of tho city. There aro two candidates for the Mayoralty, both councillors of long experience, and 31 candidates for the sixteen seats on the City Council. Eight representatives of the city to serve on tho Hospital Board are to be elected to-day, and four city representatives on tho Lyttolton Harbour Board. The candidates for tho diiferent offices, grouped according to party, are as follows: MAYORALTY. Citizens —Mr J. A. Flesher. Labour—Mr D. G. Sullivan, M'.P. CITY COUNCIL (16 Seats). Citizens. Messrs John Anderson, Oscar \V. Anderson, C. P. Agar, E. H. Andrews, A. W. Beaven, J. W. Beanland, J. E. Cooper, T. M. Charters, J. D. Gray, W. E. Leadley, A. McKellar, A. Manhire, D. Rowse, A. Williams, B. McGregor Wright. Labour. Mr H. T. Armstrong, M.P., Rov. J. K, Archer, Rev. Clyde Carr, Messrs F. R. Cooke, E. J. Howard, M.P., E. E. Langley, Mrs E. R. McCombs, Messrs R. D. Martin, G. T. Owen, F. M. Robson. Independent. Messrs W. H. Winsor, C. W. Hervoy, R. B. Owen, J. L. Gant, F. E. Pearl, R. Hampton. HOSPITAL BOARD (8 Seats). ' Citizens. Dr. P. O. Fenwick, Mossrs A. T. Smith, H. J. Otley, W. E. Leadley, J. W. Baty, Mrs A. E. Herbert, Mrs E. A. M. Itoberts. Labour. Mrs S. Page, Rev. J. K. Archer, Rev. Clyde Carr, Rev. P. Paris, Mr 0. Renn. HABBOUR BOARD (4 Seats). Citizens.' Messrs H. Holland, Geo. Scott, J. R. Hayward, and Hon. G. J. Smith, M.L.O. Labour. Messrs H. T. Armstrong, MJ?., E. J. Howard, M.P., C. Renn. Port Christchurch League. Mr T. H. Harker, Dr. H. T. J. Thaeker. BALLOT PAPER ORDER. The candidates for the City Council will, on the ballot papers to be issued to voters to-day, appear in alphabetical order as follows: Agar, Charles Phipp Anderson, John Anderson, Oscar Wilfred Breakey Andrews, Erneßt Herbert Archer, John Kendrick Armstrong, Hubert Thomaß Beanland, John Walton Heaven. Arthur Ward. Carr, Clyde Leonard Charters, Thomas Murray Cooke, Frederick Riley Cooper, Joseph Edmund Gant,- John Lawrence Gray, John Douglas , Hampton, Richard Hervey, Charles William Howard, Edwin John Langley, Ernest Edward Leadley, Walter Edmund. McCombs, Elizabeth Reid McKellar, Arnaud Manhire, Alfred Martin, Russell Dytes. Owen, George Thomas Owen, Richard Bedward Pearl, Francis Ernest Robson, Frederick Michael Rowse, David Williams, Alfred Winsor, William Hinnels Wright, McGregor Bonar The polling hours will be from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and no fewer than 54 polling-booths will be in operation in all parts of the city as recently extended by the inclusion of the Woolston borough and parts of Bromley and Papanui. The main roll contains 26,860 names, and the supplementary roll 6778, making a total of 33,638 electors competent to vote. CANDIDATES AND THE QUOTA. The election of members of the City Council and of Hospital Board and Harbour Board representatives will be conducted according to the principle of proportional representation, and what each candidate will have to strive for is to secure a sufficient number of first preference votes to give him the quota which will automatically cause his election. The quota will be arrived at by dividing the total number of valid votes cast by 17—the latter number being one more than the seats to be filled —and adding one to the result. On the main district electors' roll there are 26,860 names, and on the supplementary roll 6778, making the total possible voting strength of 33,638. Assuming that everybody votes, which is certainly not likely to happen, the quota, would be and "would "be less as the total number of valid votes cast were reduced. On a 23,000 vote the quota woul'l be 1471, on a 20,000 vote the quota would be 1177, and on a 17,000 vote the quota would be 1001. It- is expected that the total number of valii votes east will be between 20,000 and 25,000, unless an unreasonably large proportion of the electors fail in their duty, and should that total be registered anything from 1177 to 147] first preference votes will carry a candidate to election. It is, however, quite impossible to say definitely what the quota will be until one knows the total number of valid votes cast.

Many electors appear to- be in doubt as to the manner in which they are expected to exercise their votes under the proportional representation system, that is to say, how the formal act of voting is to be conducted. The voting for the Mayoralty should

elected. All that a voter is required to do wiU be to cross -out the name of Jhe candidate he does not want to vote f °The act of voting for members of the City Council nnd the city representatives on the Hospital Board and the Hnrbour Board will be different. Tho voting hero will be conducted according to the principles of proportional representation under which aa elector indicates his preferences by placing numbers beginning with 1 and continuing in series against the names of the candidates ho favours. There are sixteen councillors to bo elected, and 31 candidates. It will be necessary, therefore, for an elector to indicate his preference up to not moro than 1(5. la practice, however, it is considered that preferences up to about ten will exhaust tho power of the vote, and that it would be unwise to indicate a lesser number of preferences than ten. It is, however, quite in order for a voter to indicate his preferences to the full extent' of sixteen, and many will no doubt do this. At least three preference votes must be recorded to make the vote legal. For the Hospital Board there are eight candidates to be elected, aud preferences may bo indicated up to that number. For tho Harbour Board the candidates to be elocted will be four, and preferences may also be recorded up to that number. The voting papers as issued by the returning officers to the electors will contain the names of the candidates arranged in alphabetical order, and on the ballot papers there will bo nothing to show to what party ajiy candidate belongs. To prevent confusion when the act of voting arrives, it would bo well for voters to prepare beforehand a list of the candidates they intend to support, with the order of preforenco marked, and to carry that list with them into the polling booth and mark the official ballot papers as they have the names marked in their own lists. This method in practice will be found to be the simplest for recording tho votes effectively and according to inclination. CONCERT HALL LOAN POLL. Concurrent with the local elections there will also be conducted in the city to-day a poll of ratepayers on a proposal put forward by the City Council to raise a loan of £35,000 to establish a concert hall on the Manchester street site adjoining the new municipal buildings now in courae of erection. The term of the loan will bo 20 years, and the special rate to be struck as security should the loan be authorised will bo 87-1250 of a penny in the £ on unimproved values. The actual amount of the rate to be collected will depend on how much of the loan money is raised, and to what extent the concert hall will prove itself self-supporting. Only ratepayers or their wives or husbands who are on the ratepayers' roll may vote on the concert hall loan proposal. Sumner. The candidates for the Sumner borough will bo:— Mayoralty—Mr W. H. Nichobon and Mr T. E. Whitfield. Council (8) —Messrs F. C. Cooper, P. T. Dick, F. T. Eldridge, H. "W. Harris, A. Holden, H. 0. Jamieson, H. C. Jones, J. C. McDonald, F. H. E. Neville, E. Peek. C. M. Roswell, J. A. Rudge, J. H. Thomas. New Brighton. Mayoralty—Mr J. Gamble was reelected unopposed. ' ' Council (9) —Messrs J. Buxton, A. M. Chivers, C. A. Cooper, D. Gadd, W. R. Gahagan, H. A. Glasson, A. Hulme, E. A. M. Leaver, ,F. D. Muirson, J. C. Scott, J. H. Shaw, F. Ward, and Evelyn Olark. Kiccarton. Mayoralty—Mr A. D. Ford was reelected unopposed. Council (B)—The following were elected on nomination: —Messrs A. F. Fisher, T. M. Ford, H. Gudsell, H. Manhire, B. H. Rankin, S. A. . Staples, A. E. Steere, and H. W. Wise. . Lyttelton. Mayoralty—Mr W. T. Foster and Mr W. T. Lester. Council (9)— Messrs J. H. Collins, D. Grubb, Ti Hempstalk, M. J. Miller, G. S. Morris, F. Newfield, W. E. New-, ton, F. G. Norton, R. S. Rhind, P. C. Shirley, A. K. Smith, F. E. Sutton, W. W. Toy, J. R. Webb, G. A. 0. Whitv ford. 1