LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27663, 20 May 1955, Page 9

LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

Polling Tomorrow In Christchurch DRAINAGE AND TRANSPORT

Elections will be held tomorrow for the Christchurch Transport Board and the Christchurch Drainage Board. Both boards have been in office since November, 1951. The elections were ( postponed from last November because of the General Election in that month. Except for one independent candidate seeking election to the Transport Board, both elections will be fought between the Citizens’ Association and the Labour Party. The Citizens’ Association at present holds all seats on the Transport Board and all but two on the Drainage Board. Three of the 14 sub-districts of the Drainage Board are not contested, and the sitting members have been declared elected. They are Messrs E. H. S. Hamilton (Christchurch Southwest), G. A. G. Connal (Christchurch South-east), and C. Williams (Woolston). The first two are members of the Citizens’ Association, and Mr Williams is a Labour Party nominee. Twenty-two candidates will be listed on the ballot papers of the Drainage Board, but the election is held on the W Nineteen l candidates are seeking election to the nine seats on the Transport Board. . Three Labour Party candidates are standing for both boards. x There is only one woman candidate, and she is seeking election to the Drainage Board in the Christchurch north-west sub-district. All the sitting members of the Transport Board are seeking re-election, and only one member of the Drainage Board. Mr O. F. Baker (Linwood) has retired. There were 122.844 names on the rolls for the Drainage Board poll, excluding electors in the three subdistricts where an election is unnecessary, compared with 124.842 in 1951. when all seats were contested. On mis occasion an extra district, Waimain is included. , . ...nnn The Transport Board roll is 114.000. compared with 120.000 three years ago. General Franchise Everyone who is 21 years of age o over, who has been 12 months in the country and resident in the district for three months, or who is a ratepayer, is entitled to vote in the two elections. Those entitled to be on the roll who have applied to be put on it but have been left off. are entitled to vote by declaration. Provision has been made for postal voting. More than 120 polling places have been appointed for voters, including two Transport Board buses set up as polling booths. Most of the booths are shared by both boards, but as their areas differ there are some booths at which only votes for one board will be accepted. Polling places will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wherever possible the returning officers, Mr J. F. Fardell, for the Transport Board, and Mr R. R. Senior, for the Drainage Board, would like voters to cast their votes in their residential districts, but there is provision for central polling places to accept votes for any district.

Apparent Apathy Both parties are concerned at the apparent apathy of electors. In 1951 only about one-eighth of the electors recorded votes, and it is generally recognised that on that occasion there was an important issue at stake in what was then the Tramway Board election. The Labour Party, which held a majority on the board, favoured modernisation of the tramway system, but proposed to put trolley-buses on some routes, whereas the Citizens’ Association proposed that all routes should be converted to diesel bus operation—a policy it has since put into effect. The Labour Party this year contends that both boards should be amalgamated with the City Council, and that is the major policy plank for both elections. The Citizens' Association relies on the performances of the boards in the last three years, and states that the programmes will be continued. The Drainage Board had strong criticism recently from a few groups of residents’ associations, but since then its sewerage programme has been speeded up. and these is no issue that work is not being done. ■ Only one public meeting has been held by the Citizens’ Association candidates, and Labour nominees have not been on the public platform—several of them have been in Wellington this week for the party’s national conference—but both parties have issued householder circulars. Complaints were made m 1951 that the election should not have been held on a race day: there was a trotting meeting at Addington. This year the closest race meeting is at Timaru. Candidates are as follows, with sitting members marked by an ■asterisk,

and the letters C. and L. denoting Citizens’ Association and Labour Party respectively. • Drainage Board Christchurch North-east. —*H. P. Smith (C), R. J. Stubberfield (L). Christchurch North-east. —Mrs E. M. Clement (L), *C. S. Luney (C). Sydenham.—L. T. Loversidge (C), *G. Robinson (L). Linwood.—D. A. Doyle (C), A. J. Smith (L). St. Albans.—J. L, Laby (L), *A; J. McTainsh (C). Spreydon-Halswell.—*W. B. Gray (C), R. H. Stillwell (L). Heathcote.—R. F. Sullivan (L), K. A. White (C). Avon. —H. E. Denton (L), *F. R. Price (C). Waimairi.—*W. P. Glue (C), J. A. Gregor (L). Riccarton-Paparua.—*F. M. Brownie (C), W. Cole (L). Sumner. —W. J. Gallop (L), *R. C. Neville (C). Transport Board Central (six to be elected.—*R. G. Brown (C), *T. M. Charters (C), H. E. Denton (L), N. R. Forbes (L), *G. D. Griffiths (C), *C. C. Holland (C), J. E. Jones (L), *W. S. Mac Gibbon (C), R. T. Newman (L), *F. C. Penfold (C), J. Shankland, jun. (L), L. C. Southon (L), C. S. Trillo (Ind). Avon.—J. Mathison (L), *J. R. Smith (C). Heathcote. —R. F. Sullivan (L), *A. J. Woodward (C). Riccarton.—*E. J. Bradshaw (C), J. A. Gregor (L).