SIX CANDIDATES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 185, 2 May 1940, Page 11

SIX CANDIDATES

Auckland West By-Election NO NATIONALIST Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, May 1. The by-election for the vacant Auckland West seat will be contested by six candidates. Nominations closed today with the returning officer and the election, which is made necessary by the death of Mr. Savage, will take place on May 18. Three of the candidates have political party affiliations, and the remaining three are seeking election as Independents. There was no nominee from the National Party, and it was stated officially that, after full consideration of the various factors involved, it had been decided that the party would not contest the by-election. The list of candidates is as follows: Peter Carr (Labour), tramway motorman, Herne Bay. Wilfred Henry Fortune (Independent), company manager, Ponsonby. Joseph Bond Kennedy (Liberal), farmer, Mangonui, North Auckland. Enoch Naden (Independent), barman, Ponsonby. Lawrence Pickles (Independent Socialist), company director, Epsom. Clement Gordon Watson (Communist)', journalist, Grafton Road. A writ issued for the by-election prescribed that nominations were to close at noon, and when two additional papers were presented after this hour they had to be refused by the returning officer. One intending candidate arrived at the office with his papers apparently completed 10 minutes after midday, and the other, who indicated that he had come from the country and did not know that nominations closed at noon, presented himself at 1.30 p.m.

Two of the six candidates, Messrs. Fortune and Kennedy, announced themselves only today. Mr. Fortune, who is 43 years of age, was born in Paeroa and educated in Auckland, where he studied at Auckland University College and Auckland Training College before entering the teaching profession. He taught at a number of schools in the Auckland province before accepting a position as accountant with a city firm in 1926. He shortly afterward became secretary, and) for the past eight years has been manager. He is a member of the Auckland Education Board, and has been prominently associated with school committees and organizations for many years.