UNWIELDY ELECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 103, 4 May 1927, Page 8

UNWIELDY ELECTIONS.

A MAZE OF NAMES.

ALTERNATIVES SUGGESTED.

WARD SYSTEM AND PARTIAL ELECTIONS. The minds of many electors, when confronted with the formidable list of candidates from which to make their selection nt the recent City Council elections, iilmost waned to function. They looked helplessly at the maze cf names, most of which meant nothing t<> them, and after c-hoosing a few familiar ones miide a blind guess at the rest, in whatever way for the moment appealed to them. This and other aspects of the situation have led Miss Melville to prepare the following resolutions, which she has given notice to move at the next ordinary meeting of Hie (,'ity Council:—

"That the Finance nnd Legal Committee be instructed to investigate and report to council upon thu following questions: "I—The desirability of the division of the City of Auckland into three or more wards, for the purposes of representation only in accordance with the provisions of Section 142 of the 'Municipal Corporations Act, 1920.' Or as an alternative to 1—

"2—The desirability of an amendment' to the Municipal Corporations Act to provide for half of the members of the council retiring in rotation every two

years. "Note.—To he exact 11 councillors would retire at the end of one period and 10 lit the end of the next term, and so on.

"This would mean that each councillor would hold offie for a term of four years, as is the case with members of the Power Board and the Education Board."

In discussing this notice of motion Mi»H Melville expressed the opinion that if given effect to, her suggestion would not only do away with many of the difficulties which are making the present system of election unwieldly, but would prove a very important factor towards the realisation of a Greater Auckland. "My idea," added Miss Melville, "is not so much to divide the city into a number of residential areas. This might tend to lead to locality jealousies. What I have in mind is more in the direction of partitioning the city into convenient geographical divisions for the purpose of simplyfying the election of council. No one who had to make a choice from the recent list of over eixty candidates but would probably Agree that it was practically hopeless for'the average citizen to have anything like a personal acquaintance with even twenty-one of the sixty odd persons offering themselves for election. Under the ward system, councillors would be able to get into more personal contact with the citizens. I should like to ward system is for elective purposes emphasise, of course, that the suggested only." Mo far as the second proposal is concerned, Miss Melville pointed out that this would require an amendment to the existing law. If adopted, however, this method would secure a continuity of policy, as tinder it there could never be an entirely new council. At all periods at least part of the council would be experienced in the affairs of the city. It would mean, also, that councillors would be placed on the same footing "an *nember» of other public; bodies, in that they would have a fouryears term" of office, instead of the present short period of two years.