IT— 33 c

1944 N K W ZEALAND

THE GENERAL ELECTION, 1943 REPORTS BY SPECIAL RETURNING OFFICERS IN UNITED KINGDOM, CANADA, MIDDLE EAST, AND PACIFIC ON THE CONDUCT OF THE NEW ZEALAND GENERAL ELECTION, 1943, AMONGST MEMBERS OF THE FORCES, UNDER THE ELECTORAL (MEMBERS OF THE FORCES) REGULATIONS 1941

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Leave

UNITED KINGDOM New Zealand Government Offices, 415 Strand, London, W.C. 2, Ist October, 1943. Dear Sir,— ] am forwarding under separate cover the following completed election papers : — I Declarations in order. Declarations disallowed, with sealed envelopes containing relative ballot-papers. Valid Electoral ballot-papers. p , . Invalid Electoral ballot-papers. y m,II >ox • y a jj ( j National Licensing ballot-papers. Invalid National Licensing ballot-papers. Valid Local Option ballot-papers. Invalid Local Option ballot-papers. Attached .. Official count of votes certified by scrutineers. As the election was conducted wholly by declaration voting on account of rolls not being available, and, by commencing the count early, time was available to make a thorough examination of each ballot-paper, I appointed Mr. Arthur Sims and Mr. Jas. Webster (who is acting as Audit Officer) as scrutineers, and arranged for them to be present at the opening of tfre ballot-papers. In this way the figures wer • thoroughly checked and agreed by the scrutineers before being cabled to you. The electoral material forwarded by the " Empire Grace " reached me at the beginning of September, but the air-mail letter with instructions and explanation of regulations mentioned in your cable numbered 4894 of 26th July has not come to hand. In any case, air-mail letters in July and August were taking five to seven weeks to reach us, and I could not, therefore, expect to receive your letter before the end of August. As it would then have been too late to organize a system of conducting the election it was necessary for me to improvise one based on the regulations relating to voting by declaration. Particulars of the methods adopted and some comments on the general application of voting by declaration to this election are being supplied in a separate report [printed below], . The costs of the election have been kept as low as possible without impairing efficiency or leaving grounds for complaint that every facility was not afforded to servicemen and the Merchant Navy to record their votes. lam unable to supply you with a statement as to cost, but all electoral expenses will be paid by the High Commissioner's Office and charged to Electoral vote, so that particulars will reach you. in due course through the Treasury. Following your decision as to remuneration of polling officers and polling clerks in connection with by-elections, I am making payment to them of £2 2s. and £1 Is. respectively. I should like to record my appreciation of the generous assistance afforded to me by officers of the High Commissioner's staff, frequently after office hours, also to Mr. 11. Turner, who very kindly took over the recording of votes of men of the Merchant Navy on ships arriving at Liverpool during the period of voting. It was considered advisable that a representative should visit the larger E.A.P. stations to hand over voting-papers and explain the instructions to the officer deputed to take the votes. The difficulty of railway" travel and the distances to be covered presented an obstacle, but at the request of the headquarters of the R.N.Z.A.F. (Group Captain Manson) the Air Ministry kindly placed a plane and pilot at my disposal for four days for my representative Mr. Balfour, of the High Commissioner's staff, to visit the outlying'stations. May 1 add my personal thanks to you for the appointment as Special Returning Officer for the United Kingdom, Greenland, Iceland, and Gibraltar.