By Six to One

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 500, 1 November 1928, Page 7

By Six to One

transport board approved

Operates Within Five Weeks

nY an overwhelming majority in city and suburbs, the metropolitan ratepayers yesterday voted in favour of the formation of a Transport Board. The board will come into operation within five weeks Ir °J l \. t °' day ’ and take over the whole of the tramway and bus undertaking as a going concern.

Yesterday’s poll was notable tor the fact that a very small percentage of j ratepayers took the trouble to record j their votes. Out of the 26,397 in the I city entitled to vote the actual voters only just exceeded 4,500. The heaviest majority was at Green Bay, where i a solitary vote.r endeavoured to nullify the votes of 75 others. The Victoria Hall at Avondale saw only one ratepayer against the proposal, with 72 in favour. Proportionately the voting against the board was heaviest at Point Chevalier Hall, where a largely ; attended public meeting the night before the poll was advised not to vote for a board, the result being that 58 voted against it and 135 for it. The degree of unanimity was remarkable. The polling booths recorded the .following figures on the first count:

The number of informal votes was infinitesimal. There were none at Grey Lynn, four in 49S votes at the Town Hall and none in 199 votes at Remuera.

Mr. P. F. Notley, city returning officer, and his staff put up their finest performance yet, in getting out city .results. The first return was handed to the Press at 6.4 p.m., four minutes after the poll closed. It came from

East Street, Newton. The final result was given out at 6.35 p.m. SUBURBAN VOTE Taken as one vote the suburban voters were 4,024 to 737 in favour of a Transport Board. The incidence of the voting was as follows: For Against

All the returns for the suburbs were transmitted to Mr. S. Gray, town clerk at Mount Eden, and the final result was known at 7.15 p.m. FORMATION OF BOARD The Transport Act will come into operation as soon as the results of the polls are gazetted, which probably will be next week. Within four weeks of that time the City Council is required to appoint six members, and the other four members of the board will be chosen by Mount Eden, Mount Albert and Newmarket, who will combine to appoint two, and Onehunga, One Tree Hill, Mount Roskill, Panmure, Mount Wellington and Ellerslie, who will combine to appoint the remaining two.

Special meetings of the local bodies concerned will be held to forward the nominations of members to the Minister. In the event of either or both of the two groups of suburban bodies nominating more than two members, an election will be necessary, the electors being the members of the local bodies in the groups. Each local body in a group has a right to nominate the two members it desires.

For A gainst East St.. Newton . . . . Tamaki 10 Franklin Rd., Pon 12 St. Benedict’s, Newton 12 Kohimarama 28 Remuera 68 St. James. City 72 19 Waterview, Avon 60 St. Stephen’s 46 Armstrongs, Pt. Chev.. . 2S 9 Herne Bay 66 Grafton 54 11 Epsom 12 Ponsonby Rd v . 122 20 Tamaki Rd. Bd 62 Parnell Grey Lynn 101 14 Gt. North Rd. 111 Avondale Garnett Rd SO Pt. Chev. Hall 131 58 Town Hall 506 Remuera Lib 179 20 Grey Lynn 97 17 St. Mark’s 111 14 Green Bay 75 Eden Tee Green Lane 44 S Leys Inst 264 84 Falders Ave 31 Chamber of Com. . 717 79 Viet. Hall. Avon 1 Epsom 169 20 Victoria Pk 29 5 3,S66 634

Mt. Eden 122 Mt. Albert . . . 6SS 98 Newmarket .. .. 253 IS Onehunga 666 248 One Tree Hill . . .. 93 Mt. Roskill 89 Mt. Wellington .. .. 72 24 Ellerslie 41 Panmure 36 4 Suburban totals . . 4,024 737 City totals .. . . .. 3,866 634 Grand totals . . 7,890 1,371