TRAM CONTROL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 935, 4 December 1933, Page 9

TRAM CONTROL.

Labour Members to Hold Caucus To-day. POLLING DAY TOTALS. The Labour members of the Tramway Board will hold a caucus this afternoon, when it is expected that a decision will be reached regarding the appointment of chairman and deputychairman of the board. It is believed that there are several aspirants for the position of chirman, which carries with it an honorarium of £2OO a year. Members of the board are paid an allowance of £1 10s for each meeting they attend, with a maximum of £75 a "year. The official count of the votes recorded in the election will not be completed until to-morrow and the first meeting of* the new board will probably be held on Monday afternoon next. During the progress of the count this morning a mistake was discovered in the return from the polling booth at the Sumner Town Hall The mistake was made in the number of votes credited to Mrs M’Combs, the figures supplied by the deputy on Thursday evening being 100 short. As a result of the discovery of the error, Mrs M’Combs’s lead over Mr W. J. Sim has been increased by 100, from 286 to 38G The Informal Votes. A large number of voting papers have been rejected as informal, the main cause of informality being that more than five names were left unerased. With half of the count completed. the informal papers represented over 6 per cent of the total. In the suburban districts there was much less informal voting owing to the fact that there were fewer names on the voting papers. The substitute returning officer (Mr Albert Freeman) said this morning that some of the voters had been extremely careless in marking their papers, and there were the most “ shocking examples ” of careless voting he had ever seen. A large number of voters also appeared to have difficulty in striking out the required number of names. One Tramway Union. A clear indication that the Labour members of the Tramway Board will insist on the whole of the employees belonging to one union, was given today by the Rev J. K. Archer, who, it is expected, will be appointed chairman of the board. Mr Archer said that he was a trade unionist through and through, and be considered that there must be only one union and all the men must belong to it. Mr Archer also mentioned that the possibility of reducing fares must be investigated, particularly the practicability of instituting a penny section in certain areas.