MUNICIPAL ROLLS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12668, 2 May 1905, Page 2

MUNICIPAL ROLLS.

The disappointment whicli met Mr West last week, when he was desirous of exercising his privilege as a citizen in the ward, in which he had previously been accustomed to vote should be a warning to people -of the advisability Tof seeing that their

names are on the particular roll most agreeable to themselves. There seems no very obvious reason why.Mr West and Mr Bowker should have been transferred in the way of which the former complains, but as long as it was done at least a fortnight before the election of Councillors, the change -was, as far as we can judge from the Municipal Corporations Act, legal enough, that is un'ess a person's selection of his ward must be- considered binding until he gives notice of his desire to.be shifted into another ward in which also he possesses a qualification entitling him to be enrolled on its district electors' list. In this particular case, assuming that the facts are as Mr West has stated, the Town Clerk seems to have proceeded on the assumption that the voter's selection must ! be an annual affair, and in the absence of specific instructions from Mr West, lie lias exercised the power conferred on him of determining the ward in which the elector is to vote. Unless there was some very | strong reason for the transference, it is difficult to understand what- prompted the officer to act in this way, and it. is at least surprising " that:-. Mr West can obtain no explanation satisfactory to himself of the departure from 'his original.. choice with wliiclr-he had -given no indication of discontent. Perhaps some Councillor may feel inclined at* the" earliest opportunity to ascertain the system on which these transfers are made. Personally we think'it- is rather a pity that the ward system is not abolished in. favour of an /undivided borough.- -The retention of these -artificial divisions in a small town is apt to Foster unnecessarily parochial-ideas, and to permit the return of Councillors who at present show a disinclination to face an election. The recent shuffle of candidates produced the peculiar spectacle of a former Councillor running away from the ward which he had formerly represented, and in which he would have had to fight for liis seat, intfl another ward in which he secured a walkover. The abolition of these subdivisions would do away with such surprises as that which has fallen to Mr West's lot; i! would give each voter a larger interest in tho election of the Council, and by submitting each candidate to the verdict of whole borough, it would probably produce a set more thoroughly representative of the town.