ELECTION ADDRESSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 September 1943, Page 2

ELECTION ADDRESSES

MR CHIVERS’ MEETINGS

Mr E. F. Chivers, the National candidate for the Westland seat, addressed two meetings last evening. Mr McGirr occupied the chair at the 'Blaketown Hall, when he spoke to 40 electors, receiving a vote.of thanks after an attentive hearing. Later, at Cobden, he addressed 83 persons, Mr J. E. Stokes being in the chair. A vote of thanks was passed, on the motion of Mr F. Eggelton, senr., and ! Mr M. Moore. ADDRESS BY MR NICOLAUS I There was an attendance of about 20 persons in the Greymouth Town • Hall, last evening, to hear Mr E. W. Nicolaus, Independent candidate for Buller. Mr G .R. Harker presided. Mr Nicolaus, who received an attentive hearing and answered a number of questions gave an econi omic analysis and urged a return to natural law in economics. He received a vote of thanks. FLATS AND* BABIES. WELLINGTON, September 21. Speaking at Worser Bay, Mr. Semple commented strongly on the allegation that he had said relative to ■ the Dixon Street flats that “when babies come the couples in these flats .will have to get out.” The Minister 'declared that what, he had said w as that these flats were originally intended to provide accommodation mainly for working girls living in i pairs, and for elderly couples who had reared their families. There was a great shortage of accommodation in I Wellington for these categories. There was an appalling shortage of all housing in Wellington, and these flats were intended to meet that I shortage in one part while State houses were to look after the rest as fast as the Government could build 'them. ' Then the Japanese had burst through Singapore, and the men on housing had gone to defence work, but the housing would start again all right. The men had begun to come back and marry their sweethearts. They had to have somewhere to go. The Government had decided that these new couples should have at least 50 per cent, preference in the Dixon Street flats. ■ “I did say these flats were not suitable for families,” said Mr. Semple. “The top flats are 100 ft in the air. They would have been a nightmare for a mother whose baby had started to crawl. There is no playing room anywhere for children. But it is the very lowest form of misrepresentation to say I said couples would have to get out when babies came.” Mr. Semple emphasised that he had said that when the housing programme could be resumed there I would be preferences for these men and their wives and babies. MR. LANGSTONE’S RETURN. WELLINGTON, September 21. ' When the telegram from Mr. Langstone was referred to Mr. Malcolm, he said that the word “recalled,” if he used it (which he did not recollect) was a mistake, as he was aware that Mr. Langstone resigned. He intended no personal reflection upon Mr Langstone, and wished to assure him that he made no such suggestion His remarks wore part o! a discussion of the system ol New Zealand representation abroad, when he explained that in his view such appointments should be held _ by businessmen trained in a special c.iplomatic course to act as commercial and trade representatives, and should not be filled from the political tie.-cl. TAXATION COMPARISONS. CHRISTCHURCH, September 21. , ‘-The burden ot’~ taxation m New Zealand falls most heavily on the working man, the .small fariner, and the small businessman, said Mr. W. H Overton. National Parly candidate for Kaiapoi, addressing a meeting at Northcote this evening, fit huts particularly hard at the family man.” . . . Mr. Overton compared income taxation in New Zealand with the lates in England. A married man with no children, earning £3OO a year, paid £45/15/- in New Zealand, he sain. Tn England the same man would pay £42, but of that sum £l6 would be put awav for him until after the war —- an actual tax of £26. The married man with one child, at the same wage rate, paid £37/10 ■- in New Zealand compared with, an actual taxalion in England of £lO. The married man with two children on £3OO a vear paid £37/10/- in New Zealand; in England his counterpart paid £9 15/-, but the whole of it ' was put away lor him —actual taxation, nil. “The married man with no children, earning £6 a week, works seven weeks and three-quarters for the Government in each year. The married man with two children, earning the same amount, works six and a i hall' weeks for the Government in I each year,” said Mr. Overton. Labjour had promised the removal of the sales tax “because it hits at the small man.” Instead of removal, the tax had. been doubled and redoubled. “Who is paying for all these subsidies they claim are keeping the cost of Jiving down? You are. If you are not paying it cut of one pocket you are paying it out of another,” said the candidate. BRIGADIER HARGEST. INVER CARGILL, September 21. The member for Awarua, Brigadier James Hargest, is a long way from the scene el' the General Election in New Zealand, but he has been kept well informed about what is going on. Soon after nominations for candidates for seats in Parliament were closed, his wife sent him information by cablegram that he had been elected unopposed lor the Awarua seal, which he has held for the last eight years. To-day Mrs. Hargest received the following reply from Brigadier Hargest in a cablegram from Berne (Switzerland): “Please convey to the electors of Awarua my gratitude for their loyalty and confidence, which I will endeavour to justify in the future.” POLLING IN~N. AFRICA. fX.Z.E.F. Official News Service.] CAIRO, Sept. 17. Interest in the General Election, is considerably heightened by the publication in the “N.Z.E.F. Times” of policy statements of the contestant parties, and the general topic of conversation among the New Zealand troops is a discussion of the merits and demerits of the respective candidates and the aims and objects of the various political organisations. Most revealing are the many and varied forms in which Democracy can be applied, but the furnishing of policy statements as well as full identification of every candidate has at least prevented the soldiers voting in the dark. Four pages of the “Times” are devoted to the election, of which the organisation extends from Cairo to Tripoli in the west and the Turkish border in the east. Every effort has been made to facilitate voting, which it is hoped will be completed within the next few days in order that the results may be forwarded to New Zealand in time for inclusion in the Dominion returns. Polling is being carried out in the field during mobile training as well as in base and nondivisional units. ELECTORAL ACT Section 161 of the Electoral Act* states; ( “Every person is liable to a fine not?

exceeding £2O who at an election — “(a) In any way interferes with an elector, either in the polling booth or while on his way thereto, with the intention of influencing him or advising him as to his vote; or “(b) Prints or distributes or delivers to any person on the day of the poll, or at any time during the three days immediately preceding the poll, anything being or purporting to be in imitation of a ballot paper to be used at the poll and having thereon the names of the candidates, together with any direction or indication as to how any person should vote or in any way conveying any such direction or indication, or having thereon any matter likely to influence any vote; or “(c) During the hours in which the poll is being taken makes any public demonstration having reference to the poll by means of living figures, effigies, paintings, placards, or other like means.” There is a similar provision refer-

ring to the taking of the licensing poll. HALF HOLIDAY ON POLLING DAY Section 128 of the Electoral Act, 1927, provides:—“(2) Where the polling day at any election is other than that appointed as the weekly halfholiday under the Shops and Offices Act, 1921-22, the provisions of that Act relating to the weekly half-holi-day shall be deemed to refer to the p.olling-day in lieu of the day so appointed, and it shall not be necessary for any employer to observe the day so appointed in the week in which the polling-day falls. (3) It shah not be necessary for any factory to close during any working-hours on the polling-day, but the occupier of the factory shall afford to each of his employees a reasonable opportunity of recording his vote, and no deduction shall be made from the wages of any such employee in respect of the time occupied in so recording his vote, provided that such time does not exceed one working-hour. (4) Every person who commits any offence against this section is liable to a fine of five pounds.” The occupiers of shops, must observe the usual weekly hall-holiday in election week upon polling day, and in districts with Saturday late night, the late night may be observed on Friday. In the case of those shops which are not required to observe a statutory closing day, viz. fishmongers, fruiterers, confectioners, florists, dairy produce sellers, bakers, etc., the assistants must be given their half-holiday on polling day.