LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS’ VOTES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26491, 4 August 1951, Page 6

LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS’ VOTES

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 3. Even the loneliest lighthouse keeper has not been overlooked in provision of voting facilities for the Parliamentary election. As usual.' the Electoral Department has appointed official witnesses in tiny lighthouse communities and instructed the principal keepers to apply to returning officers for postal voting papers. For those on the islands of Cuvier and Moko Hinau, without telephonic communication with the mainland, a message had to be flashed through the Musick Point radio station. Almost immediately, the principal keeper at Tiritlri lighthouse—part of the Auckland Central constituency, although 10 miles away in the Hauraki Gulf—telegraphed the Returning Officer for six voting papers. The application for Cuvier Island, off Cape Colville, had to be transmitted to the returning officer for Hauraki at Thames, and from Moko Hinau Island. 20 miles north-west of Great Barrier Island, to the returning officer for Marsden at Whangarei. Papers cannot leave returning officers’ hands until election writs are issued on Monday. They must be back in the possession of returning officers

nqt later than 7 p.m. on election day for the validity of their votes. The staffs of the three lighthouses at the approaches to Auckland are completely dependent on the fortnightly visit of the naval dockyard tug Manawanui. Although the napers will probably be costed on Monday, they will lie in the Post Office at the Naval Base until the Manawanui leaves on her next trio on Tuesday, August 14. At the last nort of call, either Cuvier or Moko Hinau, voting will have to be done while the Manawanui waits, as her next voyage will be too late. The tug cannot berth at these places, and the papers will have to be rowed lo and from the lendings together with other mail and cargo.