ELECTION PLANS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 228, 25 August 1938, Page 8

ELECTION PLANS

ENROLMENT OF VOTERS. MILLION MARK APPROACHED. WELLINGTON, Aug. 24. The prospect of the million mark being readied when the main and supplementary rolls for the-Dominion close for the general election is indicated by the substantial increase in the number on the main roll for 1938 compared with 1935. The main roll closed on June 30. Enrolments during the three to four months prior to this were particularly heavy following on general electioneering activity, the total for the Dominion being 865,742 compared with 739,379 in 1935, an increase of 126,345. The total on the main and supplementary rolls in 1935 was 919,594. As the enrolments for the supplementary roll throughout New Zealand for 1938 are progressing steadily, there is every possibility that the million mark will be reached.

The supplementary rolls will close on the date when the writs for the general election are issued, which cannot occur until Parliament, which is at present in its final session, is dissolved. The chief electoral officer (Mr G. G. Hodgkins) stated yesterday that it was confidently felt there would be 1,000,000 electors on the main and supplementary rolls for 1938. He attributed this to the natural increase in population and to the keen electioneering activity at present evident. Of the 919,594 electors on the roll in 1935, 772,128 voted, the distribution of votes being as. follows : Labour, 357,618; National Party, 269,131; Democrat Party, 60,996; Country Party, 13,246; others, 71,137. In 1931 there were 876,731 electors on the roll. The figures for the Wellington and surrounding electorates are set out below. The 1938 figures represent the number on the main roll, which closed on June 30, and the figures for 1935 are the aggregate (main and supplementary rolls).

Under the electorate alterations recommended by the Electoral Boundaries Commission, Wellington Suburbs is a new electoral district. The old Wellington Suburbs has been renamed Wellington West, and still remains a no-license district, and the new Suburbs electorate becomes a licensed district. Manawatu has absorbed the old Oroua electorate, and portion of Manawatu has been absorbed into Otaki and Rangitikei.

Wellington Central . 1938. Main Roll. 13,593 1935. Main and Supp. 14,392 Wellington East ..... 14,031 17,508 Wellington North ... 14,573 13,845 Wellington South ... 13,790 13,914 Wellington Suburbs 13,403 — Wellington West .... 15,088 18,372 17,788 Hutt 12.087 Wairarapa 9,322 9,047 Masterton 10,286 10,172 Pahiatua 9,729 9,455 Palmerston North .. 12,930 15,249 Manawatu 10,998 19,048 Rangitikei 10,531 10,202 Otaki ! 9,799 10,839 Wanganui 12,862 11,434 Waipawa Hawke’s Bay 9,180 9,209 11,400 12,784 Napier 11,850 11,930 Patea 9,530 10,488