ELECTION OF MAYOR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20673, 11 March 1937, Page 8

ELECTION OF MAYOR

TIMARU POSITION FOUR REMITS PASSED The position which arose in Timaru some time ago when a Mayoral election was necessitated by the death in office of the Mayor (Mr T. W. Satterthwaite) was recalled at the conference of the New Zealand Municipal Association yesterday when four remits dealing with the eligibility of candidates and the forfeiture of deposits were advanced by the Mayor (Mr P. C. Vinnell) on behalf of the Timaru Borough Council. The remits were as follows: (a) That the following words be added Clause 24 (1) of the M.C. Act “and such vacancy shall be deemed to be an extraordinary vacancy.” Note.—This is the exact wording which occurs at the end of Clause 43, which is a similar clause dealing with the vacation of office of a Councillor, (b) That the proviso to Clause 3 of the Local Authorities (Members Contracts) Act, 1934 be altered to read:—“Provided that an interest in any loan raised by a local authority, whether on security or otherwise, or in any newspaper merely by reason of the fact that a local authority inserts advertisements in such newspapers, or in any lease granted or agreed to be granted to or by a local authority, shall not constitute a disqualification under this sestion.” Note.—This will matyi clear what is at present an obscurity in the wording of the Act. (c) That a new subsection (3) b) added to Section 13 of the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1933, as follows:—“(3) If by retirement of any candidate the number of candidates is reduced to the number of vacancies to be filled, the paper required to be signed and delivered by tne candidate to tire returning officer may be delivered not later than noon of the day before the polling day and in such case shall have the same effect as If delivered in accordance with the provisions of Subsection (1) of this Section." Note.— There is no reason why a candidate should not be permitted to withdraw at any time prior to the day preceding the election for the simple reason that in any case he will withdraw if he wishes to and the form of an election then would become a farce, (d) That a new Subsection be added to Section 19 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1935, as follows:—“Any candidate retiring from election after noon on the date fixed for the nomination of candidates in Sections 7 and 8 of the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1925, shall forfeit his deposit.” Note.—A candidate who puts a municipality to the expense of printing and other expenditure In connection with an election should pay therefor, if he withdraws after the nomination day. If he is subject to no such penalty there would be no deterrent to a candidate leaving his withdrawal until the last moment merely for the purpose of embarrassing his opponent and heedless of the work and trouble entailed on the Returning Officer, his assistants and all concerned. In moving the remits, Mr Vinnell said they de-It with difficulties that were experienced by the returning officer in Timaru in connection with the death of the Mayor whilst in office. There had been a good deal of conflict of expert opinions upon these matters and it was desirable that the Act should be made clear, (a) Section 24 dealt with vacation of office by the Mayor other than at the triennial elections, and as the Act stood the vacancy was an ordinary one, but there was no machinery suitable for an ordinary vacancy except at the triennial elections. The proposal was merely one of dealing with a technical omission in the Act and the procedure that must be followed was necessarily that for an extraordinary vacancy, (b) The Act at present permitted anyone to holo office as Mayor, if he had an interest in a newspaper In which the local authority inserted advertisements, notwithstanding the fact that the local authority may have printing or other contracts * 'ith such paper far in excess of the stipulated amount of £25. That, of course, was not the intention of the Act, and the proposed amendment made the matter quite clear, (c) The present position was somewhat farcical. If a candidate withdiev within seven days of the election his withdrawal could not be accepted and the returning officer was supposed to go on with the election. If a candidate wished to retire nothing could stop him and if the law was altered to permit his withdrawal to be accepted, then the expense of an election could be avoided. The latest time proposed, noon the day before the election, permitted electors being advised through the medium of the morning and evening papers and where there was only one candidate left the election would be avoided and the candidate declared to be elected, (d) It might net be a candidate’s fault that he had to withdraw but he should be prepared to take such a risk. If not, he should not stand. The deposit was low enough as It was Candidates, especially for the mayorality should not accept nomination unless they were really serious and intend to go on with !'• The motion was seconded by Mr B. R. Macdonald (Mayor of Geraldine) and carried.