WARD SYSTEM AGAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 688, 13 June 1929, Page 10

WARD SYSTEM AGAIN

CR. ELLEN MELVILLE GIVES NOTICE OF MOTION SIMPLIFYING ELECTIONS In view of the almost farcical length of the City Council ballot paper at the recent municipal elections with its 67 names, out of which electors of Auckland were asked to choose 21, Cr. Ellen Melville intends to ask the council at its next meeting to consider the advisability of dividing the city into wards. rjtHE councillor has given notice to move:: (a) That the council affirm the desirability of the division of the city of Auckland into wards for the purposes of representation only, in accordance with the provisions of section 142 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1920 (b) That the matter be referred to the Finance Committee for investigation and report to council within three months as to the most suitable number of wards and the boundaries thereof. Cr. Melville said this morning that she had moved somewhat similarly immediately after the 1927 elections, when there were 61 candidates. The committee which had charge of inves tigations, however, never seemed keen to get anything done, and its inquiries dragged on for nearly a year. The report, filially presented a few months before the recent election, bad nothing to recommend. The committee considered the task of defining proposed ward boundaries to be practically insurmountable. Cr. Melville now proposes to test the opinions of the council as a whole by asking members to state publicly whether or not they favour the principle. She herself is of opinion that the time has come for drastic reform of the voting system. She suggests three wards of seven members, or four of five representatives. Her intention is that immediately an election has been concluded the wards, in effect, disappear until the next election. Thus the bogey that the ward system creates parochialism would be without foundation.