COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2325, 5 December 1914, Page 8

COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS

-MR. FLETCHER'S GRIEVANCE.." Certain'allegations of roll-stuffing in the interests of the Government candidate wore made by Mr. Robert Fletcher, Opposition candidate for Wellington Central; at hie meeting at Mount Cook bchool on-Thursday night. Mr. Fletcher alleged that certain people, sonio cf whom he named, who were not resident in Wellington Central, had enrolled in Wellington Central as commercial travellers, while they were aot in fact following that occupation. The Hon. F. AL 15. .Fisher, Minister in Charge- of the Electoral Department, explained the position when asked to do so yosterday by a Dominion reporter. In the Electoral Act of 1893, he said, a commercial traveller was given the right to vote without tho ordinary residential qualifications;' A commercial traveller was there defined as follows :— f'A commercial traveller means and iucludes every person who is permanently, employed by a company or firm of wholesale merchants or traders as a commercial travelling agent)for the purpose of receiving orders, making collections, and the like." '■'It will thus be seen," eaid Mr. Fisher, "that in this definition any ordinary money collector was defined as' a commercial traveller. In 1902 the electoral law was again amended and the definition of commercial traveller was there set but as follows:— -. -" 'Commercial .travellers' means persons ; permanently employd by wholesale merchants or traders as commercial travelling agents for the purpose of receiving lordersj making coiUeotionis, and the. like." ' "It will thus he seen," continued the 'Minister, "that in both these definitions the very widest terms are ueed.' In 1908, when the electoral law was consolidated, the commercial traveller was abandoned altogether arid denied tin rights he had hitherto enjoyed in common with seamen , and shearers. Under the Act of 1914, it. was decided to restore to commercial travellers the rights of which they had been deprived by tho Act of ,1908. And the reason of commercial travellers being left out of the Act of" 1908 is not ascertainable—probably it was an oversight. By the Act of 1914 every commercial traveller has the right of enrolling, , after one year's residence in New Zealand, either in the district in which he has a permanent residence or in the district in.. which the headquarters of the business in which he is employed are situated. A commercial travellor has not the advantage given to seamen, of enrolling in whichever of the Wellington electorates they choose. He must enroll either (a) in the district in which ho resides, or (b) in the district in which the headquarters of his business are situated." I have no comment to make, declared the Minister, "on tho epeech delivored by Mr. Fletcher, except to say that it is apparent he recognises the business community is. against him, and one might desire iio know also why Mr. Fletcher did noj; take the opportunity also of explaining how some five hundred seamen have registered .on the Central roll under tho. Act introduced by myself last session. '. < "In conclusion," said the Minister, "I may add that the power is contained in the electoral law for any person who may object to any name appearing on tho roll to take the usual course of lodging an application with the Registrar of Electors.against such name. It is quite open for Mr. Fletcher to do so if ho chooses." "I wish again to contradict the statement that is constantly being made by Opposition candidates that we have increased the public debt by more than our opponents ever did," said the Hon. J. Allen to a Dominion reporter yesterday. "I wish to aunounco publicly that the statement is untruo. I have slready gone into details giving the figures for our two years and three months of office.as compared with thosefor the last two years and three months of our predecessors. Both for total borrowing and for borrowing to. meet current needs —public works, advances to settlers, local bodies, and workers, and so on—our figures are loss. Approximately, wo borrowed in ' all £9,000,000, whereas they borrowed £10,000,000. Roughly speaking, therefore, we borrowed ono million less altogether. For current needs our borrowing was about ono million less than, our predecessors borrowed in a similar period for.tho same purposos. ■ With recard to the loan money available, which was handed over to me when our Government took office, that was £1,160,000 loss than I should hand over to my successor were I to go out of office noiT."- ■