The Big Fight

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 351, 11 May 1928, Page 8

The Big Fight

PREPARING FOR ELECTIONS Elector’s Duty to Himself PREPARATIONS for the big election fight at the end of the current year are being made silently but vigorously, and candidates already have commenced the rough work of persuading the electors to an acceptance of their political suit. The duties of electors to themselves comprise an important feature of a general election, and reminders are being issued that heavy penalties are the lot of the persistently negligent citizen.

The atmosphere of election year permeates the whole Dominion, and the number of aspirants to the 80 Parliamentary seats indicates a keenness not hitherto displayed in the New Zealand political sphere. At least six months will pass before the people will be asked to exercise their choice of representatives in the Legislative Chamber, but already there has been an eagerness approaching a scramble for official selection in the interests of the various schools of administrative thought.

been sent to electors who are affected by the altered boundaries, and the work of forming the new lists is expected to be complete by the end of this month. Since November 6, 1924. it has been compulsory to register; all rolls prior to that date automatically ceased to exist with the enforcement of the new electoral law. The essential qualifications for enrolment are 12 months' residence in New Zealand and three months’ residence in one electoral district. A lapse of one month over this time will make the elector liable to a penalty of 5s for the first offence, and £1 for each subsequent offence, this fine continuing until registration is effected.

Whatever may be the cause of this unprecedented rush for seats, the duty of the elector remains unchanged. He is compelled to register as a voter, and is obliged to see that his name is on the roll for the district in which

There are some people who may be numbered among the city’s floating population and who do not reside for three months in any particular district. They are not eligible to vote. People whose districts have been changed should retain until polling day the cards forwarded to them by the registrar, so that confusion in respect to the districts in which they are voting is clear in their minds. Many cards are being returned to the registrar’s office with the extraneous advice; “Still in same place.” The registrar is not interested in this information. All he requires is the name of the man who has changed his address.

he resides. In Auckland the alteration of boundaries has been as extensive as in any part of the Dominion, one new electorate having been created, and others showing evidence of wide digression from the original dividing lines.

Carelessness, a distinctly human trait, frequently is manifest in the efforts of electors to secure proper registration on the rolls, and without the guiding hand of the State official to direct their pen, they view the simplest formula in the light of a complicated balance sheet. Many leave the organisation work to the candidates; others take it for granted that their names will be on the roll because they filled in a Census paper in 1926. The Auckland elector must display care at this General Election, for the fight is more active than in most places, one third of the Dominion’s representation being embraced by the province. Auckland West takes some of Auckland Central, Central receives from East. East in turn gives something to Parnell, and takes a portion of Parnell in exchange. Parnell encroaches a little of Manukau, and also concedes some areas to Manukau; while Roskill, besides taking away a piece of Manukau, loses something to the new Eden constituency, and embraces part of the old Eden district. Grey Lynn takes in a part of old Eden (Point Chevalier), and allows something to the new Eden. Waitemata gives up a big area to the new Suburbs electorate and in turn captures portion of the Prime Minister's electorate. Kaipara. It appears complicated, but the registrar, Mr. Frank Evans, who guides the destinies of all applicants for registration, has the situation in systematic form, and is figuratively the doctor for all electors’ ills.

These alterations have thrown a great deal of extra work on tlie shoulders of the registrar’s staff, and the new rolls to suit the districts are being compiled at the office in High Street. Thousands of notices have