EDUCATION BOARD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20361, 19 July 1934, Page 9

EDUCATION BOARD.

Votes for New Members Now Coming to Hand. A CURIOUS DISCREPANCY. A rather curious discrepancy which has crept into the schedule setting out the procedure to be adopted in Education Board elections has come under notice as a result of the present election of new members of the Canterbury Education Board. In one part of the schedule it is stipulated that seven days are to be allowed for the reception of voting papers, and elsewhere it is stated that votes shall only be informal if they fail to reach the Returning Officer before the fourteenth day. The Returning Officer in the case of the Canterbury election is Mr C. R. Kirk, who admitted this morning that in view of the discrepancy there was a risk of opening the papers after seven days from the date of the election, but he proposed to follow that procedure, He was endeavouring to obtain an opinion on the subject of the discrepancy in the schedule from the Crown Law Office. The last day' for voting was yesterday', and in the meantime he proposed to open the voting papers on July 26, seven day's from the closing of the poll. Fourteen days used to be allowed for the reception of votes, but it had been decided to make the time seven days. The discrepancy' in the schedule apparently was the result of an oversight to make the necessary' amendment. In connection with the election, Mr J. W. Preen has been returned unopposed as the representative on the board of the Timaru urban area. The nominations for other seats are as follows, sitting members being indicated by an asterisk: Christchurch urb?n area (two wanted)—Messrs J. J. Hurley*, W. T. Langley and M. M’Leod. North-west Ward (one)—Messrs R. Wild* and W. J. Robinson. Middle Ward (one)—Messrs W. A. Banks* and H. F. Penlington. South Ward—Messrs S. Smith* and J. T. Smart. The election became necessary' as a result of the fact that half the representatives of the respective wards retire by effluxion of time on August S next.