SIGNIFICANT VOTE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 704, 2 December 1933, Page 5

SIGNIFICANT VOTE

"Post") • •

BIG'LABOUR WIN '■ - ic' . ' " ? -r - P ' *i keen interest shown - — in christchurch r ! " election * 1 4 y-t.t- ■ - - . . VERY HEAVY POLL .

(Special .to

• * - - Christchurch, Friday. There was a smashing' Labour victory at the '-Christchurch'1 Tramway Board elections - on ' Thursday. - • : The campaign had '• been 'keenly -fought by-the Labour and Oitizen- tickets "and the' electdrS rose1 to the occasioib and there was a bumper poll of ;20,000 votes. • • '" •«>'■ > ■ ••• • •. " • Labour madb a big feature of the board's handling of the strike in May last'>' and -this feature appeared to influence many voters; - • ' ' In the central sub-district Labour won four -out of five seats. -Top of the poll was the Rev. J. K. Archer, who secured 9864- > Votes, a remarkable tribute to the-hold \thich he has on the electors'of the city." -■ Another successful Labour -ca'ndidate- was Mr. J; Matheson, - who wk's president of- the T-ramways Union at- the -time' of the strike. He polled 8896- votes. ! • ' The defeated candidates included three 'stalwarts in-- Messrs -G.* TI BoOth,- retiring chairnian, W. 'Hayward and E. H. Andrews. The only : members of- the -o'ld- board elected were- Mrs. - E. R. - McCombs, M.P., (Labour), and Mr. W. J. Walter (Independent) . - - - , ■ • • - •' 'A- feature of the poll was the solid plu'mp voting for the respective party tickets.-- • - ' The progress results were announced by means of- loud-speaker' and a display -board outside tbe-St'ar office, in Gathedral Square, Where many thousands assembled to hear the-ver-dict. -It; was an ideal nigbt, the mild temperat-ur'e enabling the crowd- to watch the progress of the election -in comf ort. Interest was kept up until the very end and long after tbe last trams had left the Square the- crowd remained in only slightly diminished ' numbers to greet- the candidates when they addressed them through the loud-speaker. ■ - • It was nearly 1 o'clock when Christchurch went to bed, having experienced the most-exciting and most momentous Tramway Board election in its history. The new board will consist of 1 seven Labour members, one -Citizens' A-ssociation representative and one Independent. On the old board there: 'were five citizens' representatives, three Independents and Mrs. McCombs as the sole representative of ■Labour-. The party members of . tbe board are Messrs J-. K. Archer, E. Parlane, G. Mapning, J. Matheson, E. ; J. Howard and G. T. Thurston (La- ; bour), and C. E. Jones (Citizens).