CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28894, 14 May 1959, Page 20

CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS

Move To Simplify Voting A committee with wide representation will be proposed to the City Council on Monday evening to make an investigation into methods by which it might be possible to simplify future City Council elections. The proposal will be made by Cr. H. P. Smith, chairman of . the finance and bylaws committee, who is also chairman of the,general committee of the Christchurch Citizens’ Association. After an overseas trip last year, Cr. Smith said that he had in mind proposals for simplifying the present cumbersome election procedure where a voter is confronted with a list of at least 38 names on the ballot paper for city councillors as well as having to vote for the Mayor and for other local bodies. He has now fixed what he regards as a good committee for the investigation and will propose to the council that it consist of:— The chairmen of the council’s finance, works, electricity, reserves and town planning committees, two other councillors, the Mayor (Mr G. Manning), and Town Clerk (Mr H. S. Feast) ex officio, with one representative from each of the following organisations: the Citizens’ Association, Christchurch Labour Representation Committee, Residents Affiliated, Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturers’ Association, Canterbury Law Society, Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Society of Accountants, and the Christchurch Townswomen’s Guild, with an experienced deputy returning officer nominated by Mr Feast as returning officer. The i committee should have power to i act, Cr. Smith proposes. Ward System

An investigation of a ward system was one of the proposals of the Citizens’ Association when it was elected to the council with a majority about two years and a half ago; but Cr. Smith’s proposed investigation goes beyond a ward system. Various methods in use overseas could be investigated if the council adopted his proposal, he said yesterday. One of the better-known systems was a division of a city into wards. He thought that if a ward system was adopted in Christchurch there should be only a few wards with two or three councillors to each, to guard against parochialism. Another system could be retirement of the council by rotation, with possibly half the council retiring every three years. A system used in the United States was of having councillors a t large—four or five members of the council elected by all voters to cover the whole area—and the balance of the council made up cf district representatives elected by voters in the districts. Such a system might deter parochialism, but it would mean the use of two ballot papers so that perhaps no progress would result, Cr. Smith added.

However, he said, he had no fixed ideas about what should be done. There was plenty of material available for study, and he felt that from a committee such as he proposed there could probably come a solution to the problems.