LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28539, 19 March 1958, Page 7

LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS

Nominations Next Week

Nominations by both the Labour Party and the Citizens’ Association for the Christchurch Transport and Drainage Boards, the mayoralty and vacancies on the City Council are expected to be made next Thursday. The nominations committee of the Citizens’ Association will meet tomorrow evening, and report to a meeting of the general committee next week. The next meeting of the Christchurch Labour Representation Committee will be on March 27. The Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane MJP.), now Speaker of the House of Representatives, and two Labour members of the City Council who have been made Cabinet Ministers, Mr J. Mathison and Miss M. B. Howard, have arranged that their resignations -from the council will be submitted so that any election will correspond with that fixed for the two ad hoc bodies.—May 17. If, as is expected, two -other sitting councillors, the DeputyMayor Cr. G. Manning) and the senior Citizens’ Association councillor, Cr. W. P. Glue, gain nomination to contest the mayoralty, they will have to resign from the council. That will mean four council vacancies as well as the mayoral chair to be filled. Deputy-Mayor Needed

The next meeting of the City Council is on March 31, and it will be necessary for nominations to be known by then. If Mr Manning is chosen for the mayoral election, a deputy-mayor will have to be appointed to act as mayor in the period up to the election. It will be a Citizens’ Association councillor, and if Cr. Glue is also destined for the election, Crs. L. G. Amos and A. R. Guthrey, two of the senior committee chairmen, must be considered.

Leading the list of unsuccessful candidates for the City Council at the election about 18 months ago was Mr R. H. Stilwell (Labour). He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the North Canterbury Hospital Board, and last week a move to have him appointed to the board to replace Miss Howard was defeated. He is a member of the Drainage Board, but not keen to remain so. He can be expected to be a Labour candidate for the council

Next on the list of unsuccessful candidates were five Citizens’ Association members, at least two of whom are thought to be no longer interested in seeking election. Mayor Interested

The Mayor has let it be known that he would like to remain a member of the City Council, and with the evidence of strong public support for him at past elections, his party could do little but accept his nomination.

His Citizens’ Association opponent at the last mayoral election, Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon, may well be a contender for a seat on the council. He was beaten by Mr Macfarlane on two occasions for the mayoralty, but polled well as a city councillor Mr F.R. Price, acting-chairman of the general committee of the Citizens’ Association, and second on the unsuccessful list in 1956. is expected to be one of the Citizens’ candidates. Another well in the running is Mr P. B. Watts, who polled reasonably well in 1956 and who has had his name before the public as one of the most active workers for the town hall project. From the Labour Party, Mr A. J. Smith, a former councillor, has good claims to candidature. Nominees for council vacancies will not be hard to find in either party. The same may not be true of the important but less popular offices on the ad hoc boards. With so many resignations pending and the chairman of one of its most important committees. Cr. H. P. Smith, absent overseas, the council holding office between March 31 and the elections, during which it will have two meetings, will have an onerous task of getting through the day-to-day business and arranging quorums for committee meetings.