BALLOT QUESTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 287, 3 November 1942, Page 5

BALLOT QUESTION

MOTOR ASSOCIATION. The general position with regard to letters in the Press prior to the closing of the ballot, when expressions of opinion wero given therein as to candidates' views, was the subject of a question put to the president of the Manawulu Automobile Association (Mr W. 11. Brown) at a meeting of the committee, last evening, by Mr C. R. Murphy. In reply, Mr Brown said that after the initial letter, signed by candidates for seats on the committee, bad appeared, the speaker had been approached by other candidates, who asked what their, position was and if they, too, could write to the Press without contravening the association’s rules. Mr Brown said he immediately got in touch with the association’s solicitor, • who informed him that he (Mr Brown) could not comment on the circumstances, nor give any advice whatsoever on behalf of the association at that time. Any person wishing to write to the Pross and asking if that could be done should approach his own solicitor in the matter if lie were in doubt about the implications of the association's rules. Mr Brown said lie had, consequently, not advised anyone one way or the other. The association, as such, could not do that at the present, stage. There was a doubt, said MiBrown, as to whether or not there had been a breach of the rules. If there had been, then the only way in which the matter could ho filially settled was for any of the other candidates to take action through their solicitor. Questioned further by Mr Murphy, Mr Brown said that this would bo in tho direction of instituting a Supreme Court action with tho aim of upsetting tho poll as a whole. At a later stage Mr Murphy moved, and Mr IL N. Rowe seconded, that tho association's solicitor ho asked to give an opinion as to whether there had been a breach of tho rules, this to bo available at the annual meeting, and the opinion to bo also an interpretation of tho rule.