COSTS OF LOCAL ELECTIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1930, Page 9

COSTS OF LOCAL ELECTIONS

DIFFICULTIES FN ALLOCATION. (By Wire—Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. The desirability of making uniform, statutory provisions governing the allocation of the' election costs of several classes of local authorities is pointed on. by the Controller and Auditor-Gen-eral in his annual report'to Parliament. A clear definition should be made by regulation, he says, of what constitutes reasonable additional easts of an election. “During the year,” he states, the Audit Office was on ‘ more than one occasion required in the terms of governing statutes to determine dispute* regarding the proportion of costs incurred by borough or county councils in conducting an election of members of electric power boards or harbour boards, which should be borne by those boards. “There is not only considerable diversity in the statutory provisions governing the allocation of election costs, but tnere is a great difference of opinion among local authorities concerned in a combined election as to what are reasonable additional costs of holding an electric power board or harbour board election simultaneously with an .election of their own members.”