Local Polls LABOUR TO OPEN CAMPAIGN TONIGHT

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 16

Local Polls LABOUR TO OPEN CAMPAIGN TONIGHT

On October 12 ratepayers and residents throughout New Zealand will be entitled to go to the polls and elect the men and women who will form their local government for the next three years.

Figures for 1965-66 show that there were 740 local authorities, and all but about 100 were elected. They spent $387.5m, of which $80.4m came from rates and levies, and employed 36,426 persons. But the figures do not impress a majority, because _ the constant worry of local government administrators and the central Government is the apathy of electors.

Party politics do not enter largely on the scene of local government, but parties contest the elections in the major centres. They have had to change their campaign tactics to meet the times.

Soap boxes disappeared in favour of hired halls years ago, street-comer meetings were replaced by amplifierequipped trucks followed by candidates in their cars and used as a platform by wouldbe councillors wherever they thought there would be an audience, even if only through opened fanlights. Now, in the television age, campaigning is largely a matter of advertising and personal calls, because local body politicians have realised that they cannot get an audience on a street comer, let alone into a hall. Christchurch will have its opening of the campaign this evening, when the Labour Party will announce its policy for the City Council, Transport Board, Drainage Board, North Canterbury Hospital Board, Lyttelton Harbour Board and North Canterbury Catchment Board. The latter is the only local body on which it does not have representation.

Up to three years ago it was almost traditional for the Labour Party to open its campaign in a hall in its stronghold of Sydenham, but three years ago few of the audience at the opening were not candidates and none were unconverted.

This year there will be a reception and cocktail buffet at the Te Kura Lounge, where anvone who pays $2 a ticket will be able to meet the candidates and hear Mr J. Mathison, M.P., the party's Mayoral candidate, announce the official policy. The electors will have to wait for a fortnight before they can compare policies. The Citizens’ Association has selected its candidates and fixed its policy, but will not disclose it until September 19. The chairman of the association’s general committee (Mr H. P. Smith) says there is so little interest in the election that points made too early are forgotten by the time polling day arrives. Nominations will close at noon on September 13. Both parties have nominated full tickets for Christchurch

seats, and there are usually a few independents willing to put forward their names and lose their $6 deposits. There will be more than usual interest in the Christchurch City Council election this year. It has been chosen as the first city to have weeklong voting. Electors will be able to record their votes at 13 booths from October 7 until polling day, when there will be 119 polling places open. The spread voting, which will also apply in Stratford Borough, is one of three

experimental procedures approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Seath) to see whether voting can be improved. Mobile polling booths will be used in Palmerston North City, and there will be postal voting in 27 counties, including Akaroa, Ellesmere, Mackenzie, Malvern, Marlborough, Rangiora and Westland.

Rolls are now open for inspection, and the supplementary roll in the city will close on September 20. A warning was given yesterday by Mr A. T. Black, deputyreturning officer for the city, that persons should not think that because their names were on the Parliamentary electoral rolls they were automatically on the municipal roll. Everyone should check the rolls, which were now available at many places in the city, he said.