POLLING DAY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 259, 5 December 1914, Page 12

POLLING DAY.

(Continued from page 2.) POINTS FOR ~THE ELECTORS. IMPORTANT TERRITORIAL VOTE. -■ There is much for the elector to remember on polling day if be is to be certain that the candidate of his choice land the licensing issue of his preference are to receive his vote. A paternal law has been designed to watch with tutelary care the sins of oinissi.on and commission that many voters are apt to '.•commit in the stress of exercising their democratic right, and the voter, who, in time, detects his error, may secure another voting paper. ' BENEFICIAL CONDITIONS. If a voter spoils his ballot paper by inadvertence, the returning officer is directed to supply him with another, hut only after the spoilt one has been ;Teturned. The returning officer cancels " the spoilt ballot paper by writing across the face of it the words: "Spoilt by voter, and a fresh ballot paper issued in lieu thereof," and he retains it till the close of the poll. When a person •applies at the booth for a voting paper, the returning officer may question him ■as to whether he is the person whose name appears on the roll, and the penalty for giving a false answer to this query Is a-fine not exceeding £SO. In" the case where a woman has changed, her name by marriage, she is entitled -to vote in 'right of her former name as appearing on the roll. No ballot paper may be taken out of the booth. The returning officer, together with any scrutineers, may assist a (voter who may be blind or disabled, or ' who cannot read or write. THE DECLARATION.

In the case where a voter who is entitled-to. a vote finds that his name does not appear on the roll, he is entitled, by making a declaration, to record his' vote. The declaration, to be

inade before a Justice of the Peace, sets out that the claimant is "the person whose name appears on the certified V copy of the roll as , and which 1 name is ruled out thereon (or: I was enrolled as an elector of the electoral district, and duly, voted at the last election for the said district, and -my name does not appear on the certified copy of the roll for the present election). J was legally qualified to be ■enrolled as an elector for the aforesaid district, and am still so qualified. I *m not registered on any other electoral toll, and I am not aware of the circumstances that have caused my name so ruled out (or to be omitted froni the roll).: I have not already Troted-at this election.'.' On makiiig.;;this - -declaration *he elector is sntiJtfsid;? to ■ vote/ just? as' though 'his riamesAj3gg*iM (l on the roll iu the ordinary^ ■. "hi SOURS OF In- the conduct, of the '.poll. the trar is required to be very particular to observe the time of opening and 'closing. After the hour of closing, voting papers shall be issued to any 'electors entitled to-vote who,'-ate iu the booth -at the hour -of closing; On the licensing issue the voting papers for local option are counted first,, and the national voting papers afterwards.- ,:' '-ABSENT v VOTERS. ■ The complaint;of Mr Robert/Fletcher in Wellington'that a lot of commercial travellers "have been "rung in" on-him ■does not appear to have any ground rfor repetition- in Christchurch. v Sur--prisingly few absent voters? permits. been issued to lers here. There are only five in'C!hris|'•CJmrch North, three in Christchureh "East, and one in Christchurch Soirbl;. "The new clause permitting to enrol in any electorate was" taks.h Advantage of by the members of -ton's Circus, nine or ten of whom; hay* Tpermits for Wellington South. :■:.<• f| TERRITORIAL VOTES. ' ; The final results of the elections will Tiot be known till after the absent -voters' permits have arrived. As these ' permits will come from all over the "Dominion, some days will be occupied in getting them in. Usually it is" only in constituencies*'where 'the'issue is very -close that the absent voters' permits -cause much anxiety. On this occasion, however, the case is likely to be entirely different, for until the time the absent voters' permits are in the results of the voting by the members of the Expeditionary Forces will not be announced. Probably, five days will •elapse after the day of the elections till •-these votes are made public. Throughout New Zealand about 10,000 Territorials have registered their votes in -this way,, so that, in the aggregate, the item is-a large one. The number •of soldiers who recorded .their/; votes iji "respect to the Christchurch City electorates are as follow:—' Christchurch East . . . . 403 • ■ Christchurch South .. 12/3 . u Avon 82 '■ Christchurch North . . r>G .' • Total 046 CLOSING SHOPS. The legislation as to closing shops, ■factories, and hotels on election day is provided in Section 123 of the Legislature Act,-1908, and states that licensed premises shall be closed as regards selling intoxicating liquors be"tween the hours of noon and seven in tthe evening. -..Shops and ofhVes covered by the «hops and Offices Act, 1008, and its agjuehdments shall close on the polling *iy from 12 noon, which shall be deemed to be the statutory half-holi-day for the week in which it occurs. It is not necessary for factories to •close during any working hours, but employees must have a reasonable opportunity for recording their Vote, and no deduction shall be made in respect thereof, provided such time does not exceed "one working hour. PARTY NOMINATIONS. TO BE GAZETTED TO-DAY. At most elections it is usual for two candidates standing in the interest of the ■name party in the same electorate to argue heatedly as to which is the official candidate of the party. This cannot occur on the present occasion, as by the provisions of the Expeditionary Forces Voting Bill, Tchirh wjss pas?ed last session, the leader? of the three chief parties must officially de<>ie their choke of candidates, LiVrals In Chrht&lnmh East need nvi y*bcrVr Rr Thfier air Mr Knsnfer is fa csij'jn c iff Joseph Wsml's D>»xms'A , ir_ t ulie Bill ■vtm reamed iiil was d«? tM£,>c i A o lT! 1 /,7 <e:fJ tDbr Efciiniiiatoi "'.'s i ( ii« -.ofliLro Fkiifts nuK itpiptateiaiitiy t . oi. > • , ' 1 uh-ir- wjrrcf «tt fifrte jj«oTalrih:;ur tirmi jurr'l- *-•'* ui!i'4.!i n« tiiiraoe&iJ tlhv llaOJirit Jim. ■•_. i«W wop'W Hrwre IVieaj; sa'ilte-tfeo «lj &;i>l l j • > i""iri ; niC4 m I«,W IDbrni'nirtn uoKJi 1i...: si/ ll' I. _".- Jit wait. iiirya»sa.3>Jk tfcj

tell who the candidates would be at the time the Samoan Force and the main Expeditionary Force left, it was provided that the voting papers should bear the three words, Government, Opposition, and Labour." The soldier would then cast his vote for the party he wished to represent. The vote shall be counted as a vote for the candidate selected by the party leaders as their official* representative. The Government candidates shall be named by. tire Prime Minister, and the Opposition candidates by Sir Joseph Ward. Two members of the Labour Party are to make the selection .for their faction. Messrs Hindmarsh and Robertson were chosen to carry out this duty. Should no candidate he chosen by any party in any electorate, the .vote cast for that party shall not be. counted at all. Of course, in constituencies where a Liberal and no Labourite is standing, the Labour . nominators will j direct their votes to go to the Liberal, and j vice versa.

By paragraph (2) of section .'?,' every selection made by the party leaders shall be gazetted not later than five days after nomination day. As nominations closed at noon on Monday, the party choices must be declared to-day. Members of the force exercised their vote for the district in which they lived immediately before their emcplinent. Their votes will be counted along with the absentee votes, and as there are 10,000 of them, it is quite possible that they may have a very important bearing on the results .in some districts. .

TEE LIBERAL LEADER. GOOD RECEPTION AT WELLINGTON. Prets Also/nation. WELLINGTON, December 4. Sir .Joseph Ward was accorded a tre-* mend oil's ovation to-night when he addressed a meeting of over 4000 people in the Wellington Town Hall. Ilis appearance oh the platform raised prolonged cheering. Sir Joseph Ward, on rising to speak, was again loudly cheered, and it was some tim-e before he could proceed. A Voice: What-would Massev give for this reception? (Cheers.) Sir Joseph expressed his warmest appreciation for the magnificent ovation accorded him. He took it as being an indication of the people being anxious to hear something of what the Liberal Party proposed to do when they came into power, as they would do on December 10. (Great cheering.) The warmth of feeling exhibited towards that party from one on/l of the country to the other could not be mistaken by their most bitter opponents. (Cheers.) These opponents had been trying to get water, to run uphill for a long time, but it' would be a superhuman impossibility to reconstruct the tide of popular thought in favour of the party that was not put, into power by the people. (Cheers.) Statements -were being made by public men that things were Ming done in connection with "the rolls which were discreditable to the country, and were a disgrace to anybody concerned vvith them. It was the boundeu duty of the (jrpvernment of the day to ascertain if there were any officers holding a position of neutral responsibility who. would-allow any Minister of the Crown to have men placed *on the rolls under a wrong designation —acting dishonestly for the purpose of having votes transferred improperly.from• one roll to 'another. The Liberals wanted a fair fight. When; they saw men enrolled as commercial,, travellers who had never been such it watf time for the authorities to-prosecute whoever was responsible. What a difference there was between the position now and that at the last election. (Loud applause.) Sir Joseph went on to say how anx-ious--Reformers were for the workers' sympathy, and how sympathetic they were to Labour. •A."Voice: Crocodile tears (Laughter.) Sir-Joseph Ward: Yes; crocodile tears.. The Reformers had descended to another method of trying to,discredit him. Mr Okey, the Reform candidate for New' Plymouth, a man whp had high and lofty ide#ls of what a member of Parliament should be —(laughter)—had suggested that the people should ask him (Sir Joseph) how much wheat his* firm had in store waiting for higher prices. Now lie (Sir Joseph) had heard a similar inference before. While he was in the North a prominent Reformer in the South had niaibe a similar statement. He had taken action regarding that Reformer, who, when faced with the denied having made it. He had wired to his firm in Invercargill to find out what wheat they had actually in store. The answer was that in twelve months they had purchased 85 sacks of wheat to sell as seed to farmers. He and his firm had never been operators in wheat, but he wondered if Mr Okey had operated, and to what-extent, in the oil companies to which this Government, was now lending public money. Sir Joseph dealt with the Liberal Party 's policy on the lines of his previous speeches, and' was loudly cheered on resuming his seat. A motion of confidence in Sir Joseph Ward and the Liberal Party was carried with great enthusiasm, with less than a dozen dissentients. Cheers for -Sir Joseph, the Liberal Party, and the various Liberal candidates for the Wellington seats closed the proceedings. AT FEILDING. Fiefs Association. FEILDING, December 4. Sir Joseph Ward addressed a very large meeting here to-day, commencing at midday. He was enthusiastically received and was given a cjuiet and attentive hearing. Dealing with the Liberal Party's record, he said that after 21 years the present Government had found .nothing in the pigeonholes for his party to be ashamed of, and this was a splendid record after 21 years of office. A vote of confidence was carried almost unanimousily, and cheers for Sir Joseph Ward "concluded the meeting. The ChristchurCh Prohibition League urges Prohibitionists in the East Christchurch electorate to support the candidature of Mr Hiram Hunter. It believes that the concentration of votes on this candidate is the only means by which there is a reasonable hope of defeating Dr Thacker, who is strenuously opposing the demand for an alteration in the unjust provision which requires sixty ' per cent, of votes in order to | tarry No-lieense or National Prohibits) u. "Vote tm Hiram Hunter who sup:jwrSs tSne Basre Majority principle. | fPaWiskecE by ffinraingemeiEt.)