Labour Wins Seven Council Seats

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29953, 15 October 1962, Page 14

Labour Wins Seven Council Seats

DEFEAT OF THREE SITTING MEMBERS

The Labour Party gained seven seats on the Christchurch City Council in the provisional count of votes on Saturday night, an increase of six, for its only representation in the last council was that of Mr R. M. Macfarlane, M.P., who was returned unopposed during the three-year term to replace a Citizens’ Association councillor who died.

Three sitting councillors, all of whom were elected for the first time in 1959, when the Citizens’ candidates captured ail 19 council seats, were defeated and none of the four new Citizens’ candidates succeeded.

There is a possibility that tha Citzens will gain a seat on the final count- Mr G. A. G. Connal heads the list of

unsuccessful candidates with 11,912 votes, 203 behind the last successful candidate, a fellow Citizens’ councillor, Mr G. D. Griffiths, and 267 behind the lowest Labour candidate, Mr H. E. Denton. About 2641 special votes are still to be counted. Some are unlikely to be allowed Special votes customarily favour the Citizens' Association and Mr Connal could make up his leeway to Mr Denton. With 445 votes separating him from Mr Denton, Mr G. D. Hattaway is unlikely to gain enough of the special votes to cause an upset Better Fell Based on the mayoral voting, the percentage of the council poll was higher than in 1950. which surprised some of the candidates from both parties who had spent the campaign weeks talking to empty street corners and to balls which had only a sprinkling of the public among the candidates.

Voters did not adhere to party tickets, although they showed scant regard for the independent candidates, but they stuck to well-known councillors and names they knew. Only two of the new Labour members are newcomers to the council table, although one was last a councillor in 1934. The two new ones who gamed seats are well known through national politics and other local bodies.

Mr A. R. Guthrey topped the poll, and was the only candidate to score more than 15.000. His popularity was not unexpected, for he has been in the public eye a lot as chairman of the airport committee and because of his efforts to cut red tape and put the airport on the map as an international jet landing place. New Man’s Success

Not so expected was the great success of Mr N. G. Pickering (Labour) • in his first attempt for a council seut. A former member of Parliament for St. Albans. Mr Pickering is the youngest of the new Labour councillors and recently made it clear that he would not be an aspirant for Parliament at the General Election next year. He works for a rubber company of which another councillor, Mr P. J. Skellerup, is an executive:

and for a while last week his car carried a sticker “Vote Pickering” and another “Vote Skellerup," but the latter was his workmates’ joke. Mr R. M. Macfarlane, MP., who appeared to have a mortgage on the support of city electors until 1959 when he missed election, was third on the list, 20 ahead of Mr H. G. Hay, who topped the poll three years ago. Mr T. D Flint, an assiduous advertiser that he was ready to listen to anyone with representations on council business. climbed to eighth place on the list; but his colleague in private electioneering tn recent weeks, Mr A S. Hollander, who was a council representative on the Christchurch Fire Board, was unseated.

The two Communist candidates fared no better than usual, beating only one of the four independents. On the provisional count, no-one has lost the candidate's deposit of £3 by failing to poll one-eighth of the number of votes cast for the lowest successful candidate, but the final count could alter one such position. New Members The new'comer to the council in addition to Mr Pickering is Mr R. H. Stillwell, who is a member of the Drainage Board and the Transport Board. Former Labour councillors to return are Mr A E. Armstrong, who was on the council as a young man from 1928 to 1934, was later member of Parliament for Napier, and is now a railway worker in Christchurch and secretary of the local branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants; Miss M B. Howard, M.P., who resigned in 1958 when appointed to the Cabinet; Messrs L. Christie and H. E. Denton, who were defeated three years ago. Returns from the 118 polling places flowed into the

City Council headquarters fairly steadily from 8 p.ra, and it soon became obvious that there would still be a Citizens’ council, but that Labour representation would increase. As progress returns were compiled the state of the parties fluctuated several times, giving Citizens 11 seats, then for a while 13 and then 12; but it was not until shortly after midnight when several big returns came in late that the 12-7 was definite.

In the following list of provisional returns members of the last council are denoted by asterisks and party affiliations are shown as C., Citizens’ Association; L., Labour; 1., Independent; and Com., Communist Party.

•A. R. Guthrey (C.) 15.398 N. G. Pickering (L.) .. 14.651 ♦R. M. Macfarlane (L.) .. 14,471 •H. G. Hay (C.) 14,451 *W. P. Glue (C.) 14,444 •P. J. Skellerup (C.) 14,395 •M. McLean (C.) 14,035 *T. D. Flint (C.) 13,972 M. B. Howard (L.) 13,787 R. Carter (C.) 13,676 R. H Stillwell <L.) .. 13,552 •H. P. Smith (C.) 13,182 L. Christie (L.) 13,173 •w. E. Olds (C.) 12,722 •A. Schumacher < C.) .. 12360 •R. G. Brown (C.) 12,409 E. Armstrong (L.) .. 12,370 H. E. Denton (L.) 12,179 •G. D. Griffiths (C.) (Elected) 12,115 ®G. A. G. Connal (C.) .. 11,912 *G. D. Hattaway (C.) .. 11,734 E. G. Adcock (L.) .. 11.444 S. Hollander (C.) 11.353 P.’ M. McShane (C.) 11,270 E. C. Munt (C.) 11,123 G. Cree (L.) 11,045 R. H. Hammond (C.) .. 10,970 A. J. Smith (L.) 10,924 R. Jones (L.) 10,855 N. R. Forbes (L.) 10,782 C. H. Reardon (C.) 10,256 J. Palmer (L.) 10,220 E. Lester (L.) 9,893 M. J. Mathews (L.). .. 9.641 H. R. J. Manson (L.) .. 9.613 9,523 M. F. Hartman (L.j R. L. T. Sandford (L.) 9,179 L C. Southon (L.) 9,036 C. E. Cullen (I.) 2,529 E. C. Knight (I.) 2,437 J. J. Forster (I.) 2.257 C. W. J. Walklin (Com.) 2.019 J* G. Locke (Com.) 1,651 w J. D. H. McFaul (I.) Informal 1.535 570