CONTROL BOARD ELECTION

Taranaki Daily News, 6 April 1927, Page 5

CONTROL BOARD ELECTION

THREE MINUTES TO RETIRE POSTAL BALLOT OF SUPPLIERS. FACTORY VOTE BY MAJORITY. Three members of the Dairy Produce Control Board will retire on June 30 and elections under the ward system established by legislation last year will be conducted in their respective wards. The board consists of nine producers’ representatives, two members appointed by the Government, and one representative of merchants and exporters. The Act stipulates that three producers’ representatives shall retire annually—two from the North and one from the South Island. The retiring members this year are: Mr. Wil liam Goodfellow, Ward No.'3; Mr. 11. D. 'Forsyth, Ward No. 4; and Mr. J. R. Thacker, Ward No. 7. Ward No. 3 comprises dairy factories operating, in the counties of Waikato, Hauraki Plains, Coromandel, Thames, Ohinemuri, Piako, Rotorua, Taupo, Tauranga, Whakatane and Opotiki. Ward No. 4 comprises seven Taranaki counties and Ward No. 7 the whole of Westland, Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury north of Ashburton Bounty. INDIVIDUAL AND FACTORY VOTES. Arrangements in connection with the elections are in the hands of the Department of Agriculture. The Act requires, that the returning officer shall ascertain the quantity of butter and cheese manufactured by each company at a factory ar factories within the ward, and that he shall allot to each company a number of “tonnage votes” in proportion to the quantities of butter and cheese exported during the preceding 12 months ended March 31. Each dairy company shall have one vote for every additional 20 tons or part thereof up to 500 tons, and thereafter one vote for every additional 30 tons or part thereof. For the purpose of calculating tonnage votes, two tons of cheese are taken as being equivalent to one ton of butter. The method of voting is by the individual vote of the producers, who are defined in the regulations as “persons carrying on business as suppliers of milk or cream to factories manufacturing dairy produce for export.” Where two or more persons are carrying on business in partnership as producers, each person. is entitled to have his name placed on the roll and to exercise a separate vote. Dairy companies operating, in a ward where an election is being held are required to furnish the returning officer with -a Ibt of suppliers. ALLOCATION OF TONNAGE VOTES. Voting is by postal ballot, aiid a votingpaper will be forwarded to each producer whose name appears on the roll, together with an envelope specially provided for the return of th e voting-paper. The returning officer may forward voting-papers addressed to producers to the care of the export factory, but when the producer has recorded his vote, the voting-paper must be returned to the returning 'fficer direct. The candidate who secures a majority of the votes recorded by the suppliers at each factory is credited with the vyhole of the tonnage votes du e to the factory. An exception-, to this rule is in the case of a company owning more than one factory in the ward. In that event no allocation of tonnage votes is made by the returning officer until the votes recorded by the whole of the company’s factories in the ward have been totalled. The regulations stipulate that no person shall be eligible for election as a producers’ representative unless he has been nominated in writing by two or more producers whose names appear on the roll, and unless the candidate has accepted nomination by writing in the prescribed form, or by letter or telegram, to the returning officer. Nominations for the elections in the three wards close on May 20, and the poll itself closes on June 15.