CANAL LEAGUE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 127, 4 July 1914, Page 12

CANAL LEAGUE.

EXECUTIVE MEETING. A meeting of the executive of this league was held at the City Council Library on Thursday evening. Present, Messrs C. Allison (chairman), C. Bailey, J. Graham, T. H. Harker, A. Kaye, H. Lonsdale, J. Little, J. W. Patchett, G. Scott, and F. L. Wooles, and Dr Russell. The chairman reported in connection with the recent Harbour Board elections that numerous requests had been made j to the Hon. the Minister of Marine to extend the hours of polling to 7 p.m., and although the Minister had replied that he had signed an " order" for that to be done the Crown Law Officers had subsequently advised that it could not be applied to the fresh election in lieu of the one declared void by the Court. The election was conducted on the lines of the previous one, and although Mr Sykes, the league's leading candidate, had received 470 more votes than at the previous election, and Mr Reynolds 512 more, the result had once more demonstrated the inequity of the arrangement of the electoral district, and the handicap imposed on the industrial electors of Heathcote and Spreydon, through their not being able to record their votes after leaving their employment for the day. The representatives of the rural districts on the Harbour Board were now complaining of the cost of these elections, and the chairman of the board has intimated his intention to make representations to the Government apparently in the direction of obtaining a reversal back to the old method of appointment by Jocal bodies.

; Mr Allison reminded the league that at the elections in 1911 it was proved that cumulative voting had been allowed in the counties contrary to law, and that as the voting was very close, it ;was fair to assume that if that had not been done the leagua candidates would then have won, and at the election held in April last it was proved that people who were entitled to vote had been refused , a sufficient number of voting papers to justify the voiding of the election, and he had information that the persons whose evidence was put before the court were only a small proportion of those improperly debarred from voting. . The league's opponents tried to censure its representatives for putting the Harbour Board to the expense of fresh elections under such circumstances, but he contended it was unfair to do so, as in both cases it was fair to assume that if the elections had been properly ducted at the first pollings the league's" candidates would probably have been elected.

The meeting decided to continue the agitation of the league for a readjustment of-the boundaries of the electoral districts, and for the extension of the hours of polling to seven o 'clock p.m.

It was resolved thatr the City Council be communicated with asking the council to. take the necessary steps to carry out the foregoing resolution, and that other local authorities adjacent to the city be asked to support action in the direction indicated.

As the subscriptions of the members of the league had proved insufficient to defray the expenses recently incurred, it was decided to ask the local bodies to subsidise the subscriptions. Searty votes of thanks were accorded to the chairman and members of the league, who had worked so enthusiastically in connection with the recent elections, and to those who had lent their motor cars and otherwise assisted at the elections.

The league discussed the question, of holding public meetings in the country districts to correclrthe erroneous impressions disclosed by the voting in those districts, and, if necessary, such meetings will probably be held before the next elections in those districts.