WHAT 1938 HOLDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20927, 5 January 1938, Page 6

WHAT 1938 HOLDS

GENERAL AND LOCAL ELECTIONS HUGE LINER’S VISIT With the likelihood of a general election in the final quarter of this year and the numerous local body elections to be held in May, 1938 promises to be an important year in the political history of New' Zealand. The election campaign will be unusually interesting since it will afford voters their first opportunity of passing judgment on the Labour Party’s record. The political trend in country electorates which returned Labour members for the first time two years ago is likely to be watched with the closest attention, for there the fate of the Government may be decided. Much work will be involved in the revision of electoral rolls, as economic changes and the development of public works have caused many people to change their abodes during the past two years.

Parliament will resume in March, and during the session the Government will introduce legislation to give effect to its national superannuation and health insurance scheme, which has been in preparation for a long time. As the scheme will affect almost every resident of the country, the Bill is certain to be fully discussed both in and out of Parliament. Local Body Elections In May the personnel of a large number of local bodies will come up for review. There will be more elections than have ever been held at one time before. The reason for this is that by legislation in 1935 the terms of office of town boards, road boards, and drainage boards, with certain exceptions, was extended temporarily for three years. Unless the legislation is extended, the boards will revert thereafter to the biennial elections that have been the rule for many years. With the municipal and county polls will be held those for the election of district representatives on hospital and harbour boards and on most electric power boards. Other Events The year is expected to be marked by a further development in overseas communications. There is a practical certainty that the trans-Pacific air service, now being inaugurated by PanAmerican Airways, will be carried on not many months hence with the new 72-passenger Boeing flying-boats, the largest yet built. No date has been fixed for the start of the Imperial service between Britain and New Zealand, but it is hoped that the first regular flights will be made before the end of 1938. The largest vessel ever seen in New Zealand, the 42,000-ton Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Britain, will call at Auckland, Wellington and Milford Sound in April, in the course of a world cruise. The Hamburg-Amerika liner Reliance, of nearly 20.000 tons, will be in port at Auckland at the same time as the Empress of Britain, and the Cunard-White Star liner Franconia is to make a call later in the same month. There is also a possibility that the He de France, of the Conipagnie General Transatlantique, will include New Zealand in a voyage round the -world.

The year will not be remarkable for athletic tours, but a New Zealand Rugby team, and possibly also a League football team, will visit Australia next winter. A women’s cricket team is to go across in the present season. The Sydney Celebrations The Australian sesquicentennial celebrations, which will begin on January 13, and which will extend until Anzac Day, will be attended by many New Zealanders, and will increase the number of overseas visitors to the Dominion. The contingent for the Empire Games, which are to be held at Sydney between February 5 and 12, is 67 strong, and its members will compete in rowing, athletics, swimming, boxing, wrestling and cycling events. There is a possibility that a large party of Maoris, with a war canoe, will be organised for the celebrations by Princess Te Peua. An important event early in the year will be the New Zealand Roman Catholic centenary, to be celebrated in Auckland from February 26 to March 7. A large Maori gathering will also be held on March 9 at Hokianga, where Bishop Pompallier landed in 1938. The celebrations will be attended by the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Panico, and distinguished ecclesiastics from Australia, the Pacific Islands, Great Britain and the United States.