ELECTORAL ROLLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 439, 22 August 1928, Page 1

ELECTORAL ROLLS

COPIES FOR SUBURBS BUSY REGISTRAR’S OFFICE RETURNING OFFICERS APPOINTED Copies of the main electoral rolls have been sent., to all post offices and many of the suburban shops. These have been accompanied by application for registration forms and addressed envelopes, thus making the business of registration readily and easily available to the public. Mr. Frank Evans, registrar of electors for Auckland, stated to-day that the supplementary rolls will be closed

on the day of the issue of the writs for the general election. Last year this was in the middle of October, but the date for the coming election has not yet been fixed.

At present the office of the Registrar of Electors in High Street is particularly busy. Electors stream in and out all day long, inspecting the rolls and seeing whether their names are included in the lists. Others are registering for the supplementary rolls. Mr. Evans states that because of the change of boundaries and the formation of the new Hauraki electorate residents should inspect the rolls to see that they are on the correct ones. The supplementary rolls will be open until the day the writ for the general election is'issued. There are several observations which Mr. Evans would like to make public. When a redirection order is signed he would like electors to state whether the change is temporary or permanent. The old address should be given, as well as the new one. When a whole family moves each adult should send in a redirection notification. Cards should be signed so that they can be read —some of last year’s signatures resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics. Cards must also be signed personally—failure to do so makes the offender liable to a fine of £SO.

Women electors need only to state whether they are married, spinster or widow; it is unnecessary to mention what occupation they follow. One election law paragraph relating to Maoris is interesting. The definition of a Maori includes three persons: (1) An aboriginal native; (2) a person of whose parents one is an aboriginal and the other a European (this person is a half-caste); (3) a person of whose parents one is a half-caste, as above defined, and the other an aboriginal native. Of these three classes (2) the half-caste, may elect to be enrolled on the European roll or else on the Maori roll, but not on both.