Riccarton council all Citizens again

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32734, 11 October 1971, Page 3

Riccarton council all Citizens again

Riccarton Borough electors returned an all-Riccarton Citizens’ Association council of nine, repeating the election result of three years ago. The opposition, the Riccarton Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association, put up six candidates, the most successful of whom was not within 400 votes of election.

The Mayor of Riccarton (Mr R. W. J. Harrington) was re-elected unopposed, and at Lyttelton, the sitting Mayor, Mr J. E. Collett, standing for the Residents’ Association, had a comfortable win over his Labour opponent, Mr M. E. Foster.

Association candidates gained six council seats to Labour’s three, two Labour councillors, Messrs A. J. Beckett and J. B. Hughes, being defeated. Kaiapoi mayor Mr B. O. Williams is the new Mayor of Kaiapoi. The retirement of Mr H. O. Hills stimulated considerable interest in the election and Mr Williams won a fourway contest, which probably largely accounted for a considerable increase in the voting. Mr Williams is the son of a former Mayor, Mr O. M. Williams, who held office for five years and a half until he died suddenly in 1965. In winning the mayoralty, Mr Williams polled 563 votes to head the deputy-mayor, Mr R. L. Wyllie, the closest of the unsuccessful candidates, by 216 votes. A former Mayor, Mr C. T. Williams, was another 12 votes behind Mr Wyllie. Voting for the council was up about 50 ner cent and while population increase

may have contributed slightly, to this the mayoral contest is considered to be a major cause of the larger turn-out. The rest of the old council was returned en bloc from the 13 candidates, with a former councillor, Mr T. M. Ayers, returning to fill the vacancy left by the elevation of Mr Williams to mayor. He topped the poll by a good margin. Rangiora Mr J. A. McKenzie was elected Mayor of Rangiora unopposed, replacing the retiring Mavor, Mr L. E. Farr, who has been elected to the council. With no mayoral contest and no great issues, voting in Rangiora was more subdued. In spite of providing voting facilities on the Friday as well as the Saturday the poll dropped to 41 per cent from the 44 of the previous election. Only 26 per cent of the votes cast were lodged on the Friday. The five other sitting councillors nominated again were re-elected. Details: KAIAPOI Mayoralty B. O. Williams ..563 (Elepted) R. L. Wylie .. ..347 C. T. Williams .. .. 335 W. E. Bell .. 79 Council T. M. Ayers .. .. 1173 •R. L; Wylie ..982 •Mrs F. R. J. Clemett .. 964 •H. G. McAllister .. ..864 •C. T. Williams .. 853 *.T. A. McKenzie .. .. 808 •W. E. Bell ..760 *R. C. P. Palmer .. ..726 •M. J. Bourne .. 716 (Elected) B. Butts 603

W. K. Wakeman .. ..542 Mrs P. B. Ward .. ..495 Mrs T. A. Kendall .. .. 308 LYTTELTON Mayoralty •J. B. Collett (R) .. .. 1022 (Elected) M. E. Foster (L) .. .. 547 Council ♦R. H. Duff (R) .. .. 1042 •G. C. Adams (L) .. . 973 W. V. Wood (R) .. . 954 •I. G. Henderson (R) ..884 •J. E. Hemsley (R) .. .. 834 •J. L. Baines (L) .. 828 Mrs D. T. Gillard (R) .. 824 W. S. Tredinnick (L) .. 783 B. W. Stevens (R) .. ..720 (Elected) Mrs M. B. E. Priestley (R) 687 •A. J. Beckett (L) .. .. 671 D. H. Cameron (R) .. 6651 H. I. Cowan (L) .. .. 599 R. M. Paulsen (L) .. .. 593 •J. B. Hughes (L) .. .. 547 A. J. Dawson (L) .. .. 543 R. D. Kennedy (R) .. .. 539 A. G. Edwards (L) .. .. 449 RANGIORA Mayoralty Elected unopposed—Mr J. A. McKenzie. Council . B. R. Hassall .. 1035 W. H. O. Alford .. .. 1003 •M. C. Pearson .. 999 L. E. Farr .. ..963 W. H. F. Conway .. ..939 •Mrs L. J. Bamford .. .. 920 •Mrs W. E. Borrell .. ..885 •H. Marks . 849 •D. A. Franklin ..766 (Elected) J. C. Jones .. 722 Mrs J. P. Went .. ..407 Riccarton Mayoralty •R. W. J. Harrington elected unopposed. Council •R. S. Lester (C) .. 2286 *D. A. Anderson (C) .. 2273 •F. R. Longley rC) .. .. 2118 •J. H. Hurst (C) .. 2094 •P. J. McAloon (C) .. .. 2076 •J. B. Midgley (C) .. .. 2021 M. N. Cooper (C) .. 1894 •P. D. O’Meeghan (C) .. 1885 (Elected) T. K. Campbell (R) .. .. 1401 M. J. Barr (R) .. 1331 G. C. Mather (R) .. .. 1233 V. S. Fanning (R) .. .. 1221 D. M. Grieve (R) .. .. 1106 H. D. Sykes (R) .. .. 1098