VOTES OF SEAMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15747, 23 October 1914, Page 7

VOTES OF SEAMEN.

GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS.

[BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS AISOCIATION.]

Wellington, Thursday. When- the House went into Committee this evening to consider the Legislature Amendment (No. 2) Bill, which proposes, among other things, to alter the system under which seamen record their votes, a further amendment was proposed by the Minister in charge of the measure, the Hon. F. M. 15. Fisher. The Minister proposed that, instead of voting in the electorate in which he found himself on election day, the seaman should record his vote in the electorate in which he signed his articles.

The Opposition criticised the proposal, the burden of the argument being that the change was being made entirely in the interests of the Minister for Marine and the member for Auckland West.

Sir Joseph Ward contended that the Bill aimed at depriving seamen of a privilege which they had enjoyed since 1893. He moved, as an amendment to the title, that " This is an Act to deprive the seamen of New Zealand from exercising their votes with the same freedom that has existed since the passing of the Act in 1893."

The Hon- Mr. Fisher said that the proposed amendment was made for the purpose of preventing seamen from improperly using the privileges which they enjoyed.

After Messrs. Wilford, Bradney, and Millar had spoken, a division was taken upon the amendment, which was defeated by 36 to 28.

A new clause, 7a, was added, providing that a seaman shall be deemed to be an elector of the district comprising the port at which he signed articles. Any seaman not engaged upon a ship shall be deemed to be an elector of the district comprising the port at which he was last discharged.