WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 September 1922, Page 1

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE ELECTORAL ROLLS. UNSATISFACTORY CONDITION. SPECIAL TO GUARDIAN. WELLINGTON. September 11. Complaints concerning the condition of the electoral rolls continue to reach the Government and members of Parliament from all parts of the Dominion. One of the latest comes from Palmerston North declaring ’ that the main roll for this electorate, which has just been completed by the Post Office authorities, contains only 8,448 names, while the roll which .was used at the polls three years ago contained 11,625 names. There has been a large and steady growth in the population of the electorate since 1919 and it is simply incredible that the number of residents within its borders entitled to registration has declined by over three thousand. ‘ The Post Office canvassers weie supposed to have covered the whole of the ground, but the perfunctory fashion in which they did their work may be judged from the fact that one of the parties to the licensing con. troversy picked up from only one quarter of the district the’ names of 513 qualified persons who had not been registered. it is estimated that by the time this unofficial canvass ha s been completed between two and three thousand names will have been added to the roll. STATE RESPONSIBILITY AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. It is quite possible that the Moderates and the Prohibitionists between them might go a long way towards repairing the deplorable mess the Post Office • authorities have made of this business, but the registration of electors is a State responsibility which certainly should not be handed over to piivate enterprise. Both parties, so far as an outsider can judge, are anxious to have a full and accurate roll, hut human nature, after all, is human nature, and the State in this respect should hold the balance fairly between them. The Post Office canvassers seem to have been sent out with the impression that their first duty was to purge the rolls of names they should not contain and that incidentally they might add the names of persons whose (4aims were fully established. Following this policy they have managed to reduce the names on the Palmerston North roll by over three thousand and now the Moderates and the Prohibitionists are spending much money and energy in restoring names that have been improperly removed. This is reducing the whole business to a contest between purses, a tegrcttable state (f affairs for which the, Electoral Department alone is to blame. THE RAILWAY?!. The mana'gemnt of the State r.iilw ys was again severely criticised in the House on Friday night when members of the Opposition exercised to the full their right to talk at large on the first item of the estimates. Most ot the speakers devoted themselves mainly to local grievances, Mr McCombs denouncing tbe Government for not duplicating the Lyttelton tunnel, Mr Ycitch reproaching it for not improving depots and reducing grades, and Air Isitt complaining of the neglect of Canterbury lines; but Air Masters got to ti e heart of the matter by demanding an up-to-date policy and efficient administration. It was idle and absurd, lie said, to keep on calling out against the competition

of motor and motor lorries, without any serious ’ effort to drive them off the roads by the provision of a superior service. ’ Point is being given to tbe criticism of the member for Stratford just now by the appearance of regular motor car services between Napier, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Alasterton and Wellington, all gravitating on Palmerston North, so that any of these centres can be reached in a single day at a moderate cost and with a greater measure of comfort that can be found in the average railway carriage. The. next move is with tbe railways. BOOKMAKERS’AND TELEPHONES. Some months ago tbe PostmasterGeneral authorised the cutting off of a number of telephone connections which were being used, it was alleged, by bookmakers and others for betting purposes. Of course tlier was a loud outcry from the seventy or eighty subscribers concerned and ultimately these people so impressed the authorities bv their protestations of innocence that all but seven or eight of fho connections were restored. The flat-racing season in the North Island began at Marten on Saturday and the regular clients of tbe bookmakers in Wellington were delighted to find that the authorities’ little spasm of activity had not lessened in any way their facilities for gambling at totalisator odds on the events being decided 120 miles away from tlie city. Both the big and the little operators wore doing business as usual and their representatives were available in many big business establishments and on most of tbe sports grounds. And yet the people advising the Postmaster-General sav they have done their best to put a stop to t l ’o gambling evil!