MOTORS AND VOTERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7346, 26 January 1911, Page 9

MOTORS AND VOTERS

DIFFICULTY IN GETTING ELECTORS TO POLL. FROM OUR SPECIAL COBBESEONDENTLONDON, December 9. Though tho fight between the parties has been carried on with tremendous vigour, the electors as a whole have , siioivn mucii less enthusiasm than they j did in January last, indeed, at the commencement of the battle they were woe- ! fully apathetic. As the fight progresses I they are showing a little more interest, • but even now tho workers on both sides | complain loudly of the difficulty they experience in persuading people to walk a little" way to the poll. "They all want to bo carriage folk," was tho plaint of a hard-driven jjowuon canvasser, "if you can fetch them in a motor or a trap they'll come readily enough, but walk j they won't." | "If it's a £no day we shaH come. Bald i anotuer, "hut if its wet " A shrug | of the shoulders was an eloquent com- ! plet'ion of the sentence. ] There can bo no question about tho ! fact that motors have piayed a very strong part in determining the issue in many constituencies both in London and the provinces. Where the contest was close the candidate with tho most vehicles at his command won. In respect of vehicles the advantage, generally speaking, undoubtedly rested with the Unionist candidates, some of whom had as many as 200 motors at their command on polling day. In spite, however, of the vigorous efforts of both sides to beat up their supporters there has been a large falling off in the number of votes recorded. Not a s'inglo constituency polled this far has exceeded the figures recorded by it at the last election, and in eom& cases the poll has dropped 'over 10 per cent, from January's figures. This falling ofi is not entirely accounted for by electoral apathy. Allowance must be made for the fact that the election is being fought on a register compiled in July. 1909, since when thousands of voters have changed their places of residence or have joined the great majority. In London alone, it is stated, there havo been 100,000 removals since the register now in use was made up, and « large proportion of the electors concerned in these removals havo been unable to record their votes. In Lewisham, for instance,- over 600 registered electors on the Unionist side alone had left the district since the 1909 register was compiled, and of these not 20 per cent, managed to record their vote in tliat constituency.