VOTING AT CHATHAMS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1933, Page 9

VOTING AT CHATHAMS

LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION. BLANK BALLOT PAPERS. The mail closing at Wellington this morning for the Chatham Islands will be more important than usual, for it will include the ballot and other papers necessary for the by-election on September 13 in the Lyttelton electorate, of which the islands are a part. As on the occasion of the last general election, it will be necessary to forward blank ballot papers, as nominations will not have closed when the mail leaves. The papers will be completed by the sub-returning officer at the islands, to whom the names of the candidates will be sent by wireless telegraphy.

Special provision is made for the conduct of the election at the Chatham Islands. It is not necessary for the ballot papers to be returned to the returning officer in Christchurch before the result of the poll can be declared. The postmaster at Waitangi is appointed subreturning officer, and his declaration of the results of the voting at the three polling places at the islands, sent by wireless, is accepted by the returning officer.

It is fortunate that the South Sea is to leave for the islands before the election. The regular Chatham Islands steamer Tees, is laid up at Lyttelton, and will not ,make a trip to the islands for a month or two at the earliest, and had the trawler not been running the electoral officers would probably have been in a quandary. Possibly the difficulty could have been solved by conducting the election at the Chatham Islands by wireless, the sub-returning officer preparing the ballot papers at the islands.