ELECTORAL ROLLS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20381, 30 October 1931, Page 8

ELECTORAL ROLLS.

CHRISTCHURCH MEMBERS MAKE REQUEST. [ERO.M OUR I'arliamentap.Y RJKI'ORIER.J WELLINGTON, October 29. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. WV Forbes, was asked in the House of Representatives to-day if he would undertake the work of bringing the electoral rolls in Christchurch districts up to date by putting them into .the hands of the Post Office officials without delay. Mr E, J. Howard (Lab., Christchurch South), who raised the question, said, the Canterbury rolls, which were in a very bad state, would soon have to close along with others, and he asked that something should be done to have them purged of ineligibles and brought up to date. In spite of the fact that enrolment was compulsory with a fine for omission, the law had not been fulfilled •in a great many instances in the south, particularly so far as the main rolls were concerned. Mr D. G. Sullivan (Lab., Avon) said a great deal of the work of scrutinising the rolls, which was usually done by parties interested in the liquor issue at the General Election, would, on this cocasion, be left to the political groups. Many changes had been made in Christchurch, and ho asked the Prime Minister to see that the election there was decided on clean and complete rolls. Mr J. McCombs (Lab., Lyttelton) said that two or three canvassers had in one evening discovered 250 omissions from a roll in Christchurch. Many who had left Christchurch were still 011.

Mr Forbes: Not many have left; you mean new people coming in. Mr McCombs: Many have gone, too. The fact that they have not been taken off leaves the number substantially the same, but newcomers are not being added. The Post Office staff could do the job without cost to the Government. Mr Forbes promised to have the question thoroughly investigated straight away, so that the rolls could be made as accurate as possible.