LOCAL ELECTIONS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18367, 28 April 1925, Page 12

LOCAL ELECTIONS.

DISPLAYING RESULTS. The Christchurch City progress regulto wilb be displayed to-morrow night on a. largo screen erected ncathe entrance to the Municipal offices in Manchester street. The screen will fane towards the Trinity Congregational Church, and there will be a fairlv long length of roadway along, Manchester street where ppectators may gain a clear view of the figures as they are posted. The speeches after Uio election will lie delivered from xho balcony of the Council offices. It is expec-ted that the Mayoral figures will be complete by 10 p.m.. but it will be probably later before a final announcement can be made regarding the Council candidates, and the Council representatives on the Hospital Board and' the Harbour Board.

VOTE EARLY. RETURNING OFFICER'S REQUEST.

It will be in the interests of all concerned, the returning officer, Mr Albeit Freeman, considers if electors will record tbeir votes as early as possible to-morrow.

Chatting with a reporter yesterday. Mr Freeman remarked-that early voting meant early results, arid he assumed that everyone wanted to know the final figures with the least possible delay. It has happened in the past that when seven o'clock struck —tin 1 - hour at which tho polling booths are closed—thirty or forty voters were in a booth when the doors were 6-hut, and this'bad meant delaying things lor three-quarters of an hour. Mr Freeman's staff is keen to get ihe results promptly, hence the returning officer'« appeal to voters not to postpone voting till the last minute.

CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION RALLY.

There was a large audience at the final rally held in the Jellicoe Hall last evening under the auspices of the Citizens' Association, when . candidates nominated by the Association for election on Wednesday to the City Council and various local bodies addressed those 'present on the lines of statements made by them at earlier meetings of the election campaign. Mr H. D. Acland prsided. The main point stressed by the speakers was an appeal to all voters to go to the poll. One speaker declared that if it was Rood enough fbr business men to offer their services gratuitously, it was good enough for the electors to take the trouble to register their choice. The speakers were: the Mavor (Mr J. A. Flesher), Mrs A. K. Herbert, Messrs A. W. Beaven, W. E. Leadley, and J. R. Hayward. Various questions were satisfactorily answered.

ADDRESSES OF LABOUR CANDIDATES.

Rev. J. K. Archer, the Labour candidate for the Mayoralty, and all the Labour candidates for the City Council, Harbour Board. and Hospital Board addressed largely-attended open-, air meetings last night at the corner of Phillip and Tuam streets, corner of Grafton l arid Charles streets, corner of Wilson's and Opawa roads and outside the Waltham. School.

Mr H. T. Armstrong,. M.P., a candidate for the Harbour Board, said the only reason why he was not offerinn; his services for the City Council 'on this occasion was that he intended to devote a great deal of his time during the coming year to the organising work of the JUabour Party in connexion with the Parliamentary elections, in order to help win .New Zealand -for Labour. He was,' however, standing for re-election i& the Harbour lio»rd.. He contended that it had always been the" Citizens' Party which, had brought party issues into the' City Council business, by seeing to it that Labour was in a minority on all committees and always objecting for party reasons to any Labour member being chairman of a committee. lr' the people of Christchiirch wished to see their city progress and become what it had every rigbt to be, the leading city in Mew Zealand, they must geo rid of the "do nothing" ©arty and pub Labour men in power. Mr T. H. Butterfield said ho ( had been a trades unionist for twentyfive years, and had risen to the highest position in the industrial movement locally. He had also for eight years been a member of the [ Sydenham School Committee, and was I for three years a member of the Sydenham Burgesses' Association. He was particularly interested in the, subject'of" children's playgrounds, and had given road construction, drainage, water supply and many other things connected with municipal work a great deal of thought. Mr G. T. Owen stated that he had sei-Ted thiee years on the - AVoolston Borough Council as a Labour member and had taken part in the amalgamation of Woolston with the city. He had taken active steps in the formation of the Woolston Burgesses' Association, of which he was honorary secretary. Although a native of Christchurch, he had travelled the old and the new world and had studied municipalaffairs closely. He referred to the American ideas of local bodies buying I land, running the tram-cars and other services into the centre of a huge block | of land and then cutting it up into sec- [ tions and selling to the people at a reaj sonable cost. He strongly advocated the platform as set down by the Labour | Party. The Labour candidates were alt I tried men in the movement,; their platI form was sound, and the electors could j rest assured that no scheme of municipalisation would be undertaken except along s ound financial lines. Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P., said he had carefully read the programme of the Citizens' Association. To call it a programme seemed to him a libel on a good English word. It was just a promise to do nothing at all during tho next two years, but it was wrapped up in a veritable dictionary of words. Ho dealt with the Labour Party's policy in regard to housing, and stated that tho dity Council's present scheme meant the erection of only seven houses a year when probably ten times that number were needed. The rest of the Citizens' Association's programme consisted of generalities so remote and indefinite as to be really meaningless. "What was the association proposing in thfi administra? tion of the city when it said that its programme was "to efficiently guide tho development of the city and to administer its affairs in the interests of the citizens as a whole V They were the accepted everyday things, about which there was no difference of opinion, things that were the daily work of every municipality quite irrespective of what party or what individuals controlled it, I and thoy were things that were attendI ed to by the paid officers of the Council. Mr Sullivan urged his hearers to vote [for Mr Archer as Mayor, and for tho

Labour candidates for the City Council, Hospital Board and Harbour Board. Mr E. Macfarlanc said, in the course of his address, that there*"was a statemeat in the Citizens' Association's manifesto regarding wild-eat schemes propounded by the Labour Party. He said there were as many wild-cat schemes brought forward by the Citizens' Association, as, for example, Mr Flcsher's proposal to establish ;i zoo iu Christchurch at a cost of a fabulous gum of the ratepayers' money. Mr E. Parlane dealt with the needs of suburban libraries and defended the rMit of a trade union secretary to exercise his full rights of citizenship bv standing at local elections. At the conclusion of the meetings, the candidates were accorded votes of thanks and confidence. Speaking at the corner ,cf Charles and Grafton streets last night, the Rev. Clyde Carr. a candidate for reelection "to the City Council and the Hospital Board, said the present election, like all others where Labour and anti-Lahour were involved, was a struggle between, on the one hand. tJie people and the suffering servants of the people, and, on the other. Mammon the high priests of Mammon. The odds were very heavily loaded, therefore, against Labour—the rolls wcro loaded, the Press was often loaded, existing institutions were almost in every case loaded against Labour; so that it had little to commend or aid it hut the devotion of its leaders and the inherent righteousness and reasonableness of its cause as proven wherever and whenever it had been tried out. It was inevitable, however, that, in spite of enemies within and without, right would triumph and the people come to live in the light of the Christian commonwealth, where government of the people bv the people, for the people, would" operate in the. sphere of industry and commerce as m politics, placiiif all the means of life under tns control and at the service of the common man.

Mr Joseph Hamlet. Independent Mayoral candidate, addressed, a large •fathering in Sydenham Park last evenTng He spoke on municipal politic*, such as the Waimnkariri scheme, water supply, better access to the sea, etc. He "was accorded a hearty vote or thanks, which was carried -unanimously. Mr Hamlet will give lus final address- in Victoria square to-night at 8 o'clock"? and ' invites the citizens to bring forward anv question they like relative to municipal -politics. Last evening Mr J. "W. Beanland addressed a well-attended meeting in the Methodist School mom, Rmjby street, where he dealt fnllv with his policy. At the. conclusion of his address the candidate was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence. To-night Mr Beanland will address the electors of Beckenham, in the Beckenham Hall, at 8 o'clock. The Citizens' Association is advertising for .helpers on election day.