THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6488, 13 December 1881, Page 6

THE GENERAL ELECTION.

THE PRESS ASSOCIATION OFFICES. [raox otm obic ux coanaroirDsorr.J WELLINGTON, D»c. 10. Said my friend, the manager of the United Press Association, to mo yesterday momiof: “ Will you come and give u* a hand to-night? —of cour»o it will be a matter of business.” Tho " giving a hand ” referred to the work of compiling tho election returns j tho “ matter of btuinees ” woe a delicate allusion to filth; lucre. The inducement woe wholly unneccsear;. Ju»t five weeks ago to-day, the one centre of interest to the mole Colon;, was a dirt; little cooking wharf at Farihoka, wherein were the writer and another “ special, 1 ” watching, unknown to the principal actors, the historical traced;, or comedy—call it which ;on will, of that eventful da;. Last night public interest centred in the two modest rooms in Feather*tone street, Wellington, known as the offices of the Press Association. The Legislature of the Colony bod in its wisdom decreed that oil elections (general) to seats in the House of Representatives should take place throughout the Colony upon one day. The public of New Zealand, from the North Cape to the Bluff, would, on the following morning, demand to know the re* salts of these elections. Only through the machinery of the Press Association could this be accomplished. Governments eon achieve great feats, but come feats are beyond even their power. That of collecting from ever; booth m the Colony the votes polled for ever; candidate, and instantly distributing those returns throughout the length and breadth of the Colony, so that ever; man, woman and child who could read would sec at a glance who were the “ outa ’’ and who tho “ ins,” was more than the Government could accomplish. Only with the assist* anoo of the Press Association could it be done. Therefore the Government and the Press Association worked hand-in-hand. Weeks before the fateful 9th of December, the Manager bad proposed to the Government that all Returning and Deputy-Returning Officers should bo instructed to forward, as eoon $s the return* bad been made up, the results at each polling-booth to the Association Office, there to he coded, and thence re-transmitted to every paper belonging to the Association—practically to every centre of population in the Colony. The reader will now easily understand how it was that to a Special Correspondent tho Press Association Office was, for that night, tho one spot in New Zealand on which he most desired to be, and why Mr Giilon’t offer was gladly accepted. 1 was in luck’s wav. Before describing the animated scene in these two little rooms in Feathers lone street, let me endeavour to give the reader some idea of the Immense amount of work to bo done before the returns could be placed before him printed in tho compact form in which the; met his eye this (Saturday) rooming. There were 77 seote to be contested, for which there were 226 candidates, lor whom voted, in round numbere, 60,000 electors, at 604 polling places. Imagine the army of ReturningOfficers, Deputy Retnning-Oulcers, Poll Clerks, ircrutluoars, Ac., Ac., employed in recording these vote*. Imagine another email army of telegraphists and messengers, receiving, transmitting, and delivering the thousand* of message* containing the result*, not only of each election, but at each pollingbooth. At Wellington thirty operatives wear* employed, at Auckland, Napier, Blenheim, Dunedin, and Christchurch, an average of fifteen each, and at smaller stations n grand total of over three hundred. For organising this portion of the work great credit is due to Mr Q. 8. Cooper, Undersecretary j Mr W. Grey, Secretory Telegraph Department j Dr Lemon j Mr 0. 0, Robinson, Offloer-in-charge, Wellington office, and generally to all the officials of the Telegraph Department throughout tho Colony. This also is, perhaps, the proper place to state that Mr Gillon Informs me that he met with the utmost courtesy and assistance from the Mon Walter Johnston and the Hon Thomas Dick in making the preliminary arrangements. I have not yet done with tho Telegraph Department. The number of messages delivered to the Association between tho hours of 6.80 p.m, and midnight on Friday was 382. The number of separate messages despatched from tho Association after 7 p.m. was 156, many of these being continuous from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. But this does not give an adequate idea of the amount of work done i for the results of the polling for each of the 77 oonteeted eeate had to bo delivered to each of the forty or so papers subscribing to the Association. This would mean equivalent to about 12,680 messages, averaging 16 words, or a grand total of 198,200 words. The message which travelled

in tho North Island ovsr the longest distance of ofaw ooioo from Moegontii, vis., S3® mil**. Tkt longest io the South Inland, from Queensto wo to Wellington, »ii,, 817 mil**. But the Mcngonai stowage had to go to Queenstown, and (dor tend, to that tho longest distance travelled by any single massage n* 1866 miles, Iho shortest probably not under 10 mil**. The total adwaf* of wlr» Is use «m DSL Ha number *1 stations opon «•« I M, of which 188 war* in tho South Island sod 108 la the Worth lihodL -Wow take tho total mitoago of wire—over 0000 l consider lh« thousands of ms—gas fiasbad orw thi* enormous distance without IntomWcn for eight or ton bourn— oil bearing on tho election, bo it remembered: noto that •very paper In tho Colony of any repute, printed, feubUshsd, and distributed to too* of thousand* of reader* tha eptlomiead rwraito of these telegrams, and ym may form some faint idea of the feat aoeompiribod by the Telegraph Department of Wow Zealand and the Free* Association. Alter tho figure* siren, It ie perhapo scarcely necessary lo add that sine# tho introd notion of telegraphy into the Colony upon no- occasion h»« such an enormous numher of message* boon received and do* (patched within the same time. lam not np in matter* electrical, hot hart asked a friend, who I* lo giro me (apprmtiiaatoly) an idea of how much electrical power l«et night's election work would roprsao&t. "Weil,” besays, “if yon toko it me superficial area, about ton square mile*; if by weight, about a ton and a half j if by liquid measurement, eay four hogshead* j if by horse-power, not le«« than 228—that ia, a horao for each Candidate j if— w The reader can toko hi* choice, but I recommend the hone* power Idea m being tho moat easily digested. Susy as was tho scone Is tho Wellington Telegraph Office, it was sot more so than bn the Fms Aseociation's rooms. The manager had, aa has already been stated, made his ar* rangomento with tho Ghmrnmeni week* beforehand, and had also organised a eompe* tent stall of aseistooto. Wo worodiridod into two seta, whieb may bo described as tho ro» coifing staff and too despatching stoff, each occupying one of two rooms opening one into another. To each of the receiving dorks a certain portion of the Colony *aa assigned, io each case that with tha topography of which ho was presumably moat familiar. My district at first comprised tho whole of Ctolorbarj and Otago | bat alter the first two hoots I was relieved of tho latter. Sadi of os had before him foolscap folios, on which were written the names of tho doctorate*, with the names of the polling places in vortical columns, and tho names of the candidates in parallal column*, after the fashion of £a d. On oao tide lay the piles of Ira&o* mltting telegraph forma, ready filled up with name of poDing-plac#, names of candidates, fto, so that nothing remained but to fill in the figures as they arrived. This was tbs mods* operand* The following telegram, eay would arrive : ** Waehdyfce Point Sattor, 163 Fisher 83 Newton 0 Anderson 6.” This being » Cantor bury electorate, it woold bo handed to me. I torn up "Gladstone," ia which electorate Washdyke is, enter tho figures for each candidate opp:site the proper polling-place. X than initial the telegram, and place it on a file. Bnt I find the corresponding despatch-form j fill that in from tho entry on the sheet; dace it on another file; whence it is instantly token by a messenger and carried to the tdegraphoffioe. Is a few minntes more the wire* are fleshing all over tha Colony that Mr polled so-and-so at so-and-to. By-and-byo when the returns from all the polnsg-fdaMe for any one eleetorata are in we add up the figures, and give the totals to another clerk, who immediately wires them out as a cheek upon the polling-booth returns already wired In detail.

The system hits beea veil organised, end mores admirably. The work is too absorbing to admit of conversation. Now-and-agaio as a surprise—welcome or disappointing as the case may be— ocjjuw, mu of us will ejaculate, M Hollo i* out 1” or “ Fancy getting in 1" hut there Is no time to discuss Die matter. Telegraph-messengers ere rushing In after the fashion of boys tearing school —there teems to be no end to them; thesis of telegrams are accumulating; between one room end the other Mr OtUon is trotting incessantly, handing telegrams to one, receiving them from another t now appealed to as to where on earth “Station Peak 11 is, or who the derii Bsteison is; ail the time keeping the machine that baa beea wound up for the occasion going smoothly. Only once daring those long boars do we pause for a quarter of an hour’s rest and some muchneeded refreshment. Then at it again until shortly after midnight the very last telegram comes | the very last entry is made; the very last despatch sent off. Then comes the re-action. Sundry capsuled bottles myster outly appear; corkscrews and tumblers are in demand ; the dudheen and the fiabana are lighted; and the results of tbe election discussed with a freedom that would slightly astonish some of those whose names are before os. We can, at all events, congratulate ourselves upon being the first in the Colony in a position to form any opinion as to the perto*%el of the eighth Parliament of the Colony of New Zealand. Next morning, thanks to the Telegraph Department and the United Press Association, the whole Colony will know as much as we do. ' About 2 a.ra. we separate, but not before remembering the hundreds of printers wbo, throughout the length end breadth of the land, are now busily picking up hundreds of thousands of types, from which in an hour or two will be impressed upon scree of paper the results of that day’s work.