TOPPING THE POLL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 116, 19 May 1941, Page 9

TOPPING THE POLL

All who have topped the poll in the city elections have given long service to Wellington.

' The Mayor, Mr. Hislop, was first a member of the City Council in 1913, but went overseas on active service in 1915. He was next elected to the council in 1927 and as Mayor in 1931, which office he has held continuously since, a record for the office cf Mayor of this city.

Mr. R. A. Wright, top of the council poll, also became a councillor in 1913 and has been a councillor or Mayor of the city without a break for almost thirty years. He was Mayor of Wellington from 1921 to 1925, and his public service has been very wide, apart from purely city activities, including his long service as a member of Parliament and one term as a Cabinet Minister with the portfolio of Education. Though Mrs. Knox Gilmer, head of the list on the Hospital Board, has not so long a record of public service, hers is a record of most active interest in any movement with which,she became associated, particularly in the wide field of women's interests, the Horticultural and Beautifying Societies, and latterly in the work of the Hospital Board.

Sir Charles Norwood, who tops the Harbour Board poll, became a member of the City Council in 1917 and served until 1923. In 1925 he was elected Mayor and held office for two years. As Mayor and councillor Sir Charles Norwood took leading parts in the promotion of the-city milk supply scheme, the City and Suburban Water Board, and as a public-spirited citizen in the establishment of the Wellington Free Ambulance. He has given long service on the Harbour Board and on a number of other public bodies in Wellington.