COMPILING THE ROLLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15663, 17 July 1914, Page 9

COMPILING THE ROLLS.

OPERATION OF NEW SYSTEM

SERIOUS DIFFICULTIES.

TRACING > THE ELECTORS.

! "So far as the post office is concerned, I the whole system is working very smoothly and satisfactorily," said Mr. J. J. Kearney, the postal official in charge of electoral business, when interviewed yesterday regarding the new system of compiling electoral rolls. "Of course, the great work is really in the city itself, but with the letter-carriers working with a will— and although our 70 carriers do not got a largo bonus for this extra duty, they are really doing it exceedingly well—l think our share of the work will provo to have been successfully undertaken. I do not think that any serious difficulty can in terfero with the work now. If the letterearners had not undertaken the work so satisfactorily it would, perhaps, have caused some difficulty. Mr. Kearney explained the system briefly and clearly. The registrars of the 18 electoral districts within the Auckland postal district make out a separate card for each nana on the electoral roll last issued, and these are sent to the mail-room at the Chief Post Office, Auckland. As the majority of the 18 electorates are country electorates, and as there are, in round figures, 11,000 names on a country roll, the magnitude of the task that has been undertaken by tho post office can be readily understood. An oilicial has been specially delegated to handle tho tens of thousands of cards which are now pouring into the mail-room. He and his assistants keep a record of each card, sort them out into lots for the various districts, and pass them on to the different officials con cerned. Somo go to country postmasters, some to the postmasters in the smaller towns, and some to the city ietter-carriors. Checking the Cards. The cards hear the name and address of electors who voted at the last election. Those who did not vote must be specially re-enrolled. A space is provided on the card in which the letter-carrier indicates one of three things:— Tho elector is still at his old address. 2. Tho elector is at a different address. 3. The elector is gone, and the present address is unknown. The card is marked accordingly by the carrier, and returned to the mailroom official. The carrier also has with him a book of enrolment forms, and is expected to leave an enrolment form at every house in his district where he believes a qualified elector resides who is not otherwise provided for.

In the case of country towns where let ter-carners are employed, the same pre cedure is followed, and the cards, whei marked, are bundled up and sent back U the Auckland office. Cards for scatterec country districts, where there are no do liveries by letter-carriers, offer greater dif Acuities. There the cards have all to b< attended to by the country postmasters, who Generally know the names of all th« peoole in their districts who may apply to them for letters. If the card bears a name not familiar to a postmaster a few inquiries will generally satisfy him that the elector is, or is not, a resident in that district. In the majority of cases the country postmasters conscientiously attend to these cards and to the enrolment of persons otherwise qualified; but in some cases the postmaster does not understand the instructions sent him, or does not trouble about the cards, and. then difficulties arise, It has been suggested that a safeguard against the partial disfranchisement of a district would be a general warning to electors, either by advertisement or by poster, to sec that they are on the roll.

Meanwhile the mail room official keeps a check upon all oarde returned, and when his records show that cards are not being returned, he makes inquiries accordingly. When the marked cards ore found to be in order, they are returned to the registrar concerned. Prom I his information the latter proceeds to compile the roll. Serious Difficulties Discovered. One serious difficulty has been discovered by the post office officiate, and the township of Henderson furnishes a good example of this. Henderson is partly in the Waitemata and partly in the Eden electorate and the postmaster at Henderson, who know? the names of most of the people there, but does not know exactly where many of them live or just exactly where the electoral boundaries fall, is having a considerable amount of difficulty in filling in cards and enrolment formß correctly. _ Other postmasters are dealing with similar troubles. The most serious disabilities of the new system, however, are being experienced by the registrars. The system, enormous amount of checking and clerical work and rome of the registrars interviewed yesterday were somewhat pessimistic when discussing its ultimate effect. In Which Electorate? "Here is an instance of our "troubles," said one official. " Yon 6oe theso cards on this table— hundreds and hundreds of them. These have been retnrred from the post office, and they represent electors who have moved from one electorate into another. To each of these electors wo have to post an enrolment form, and a note asking them to fill in the form and return it to the registrar of electors for that particular district. That entails a great deal of work, but it is simnle enough. But look at this pile of card's. The addresses here are (riven as "Dominion Road,' ' Richmond Rned,' New North Road,' and numberless others. All these streets and roads pass through two. three, or oven four electorates, and there is absolutely nothing to show us in which district the particular elector resides. We have scores of cards referring to people who live in a road or street which forms the boundary of an electoral d-strict, but we do not know on which side thov live. In most of the cases the houses are not numbered. Hew are we poing to get these people into the right district? I don't know. Wo must send them back to the post office, I suppose, but look at the endless complications this is introducing into our checking system. "Gone—No Address." Another official stated a grievance with equal vigour, "There," he said, pointing to an overflowing table, " are 2000 cards marked ' —no address,' by post office officials. In every individual case we have to make out a notice addressed to the person concerned, telling him that he is reported not to be at his address, that we propos* to strike him off the roll, and asking him what he proposes to do about it. This we have to post to him, by registered letter, to the address which the post office officials have already informed Us is no* his. When the registered letter comes back unclaimed, the matter is reported, and we 'await further instructions.'

"Of course, the system has its advantages, and it had to have a trial before its defect* could be discovered; hat now it looks as if the elaborateness of its desism will cause such an enormous amount of clerical work that the preparation of the rolls will be delayed beyond all expectations. If the authorities would depend more upon a general invitation to people to enrol, letting them know that disfranchisement would follow if they were too iazv or careless to do so, and, lees upon enrolling everyone by an elaborate svstem of tracking our enormous shifting population to its various addresses, the system would work admirably. They are trying to make it do too much at present."