新西兰英语 820 Local Body Elections

 　　Local body organisations are city or district councils, local or community boards, regional councils and District Health Boards. Different areas have different local body organisations.

　　District Health Boards are responsible for hospitals in your area and for all public health care from care of the elderly to delivering new babies. You vote for these board members by writing 1 beside the person you choose as the best, 2 for the next person and so on. Seven members will be chosen. You don’t need to put a number beside each name. You can vote for only one person if you want to.

　　Local or community boards are interested in the local community. They are concerned with parks, swimming pools, footpaths¹, roads and so on in their area. They make suggestions to the city or district council. They are paid to attend meetings.

　　City councils, and district councils in rural areas, spend the money. They decide where to put new facilities, new roads, new bridges and so on. They provide libraries, rubbish collection and special celebrations like fireworks or outdoor concerts in summer. You vote for council members in your area (your ward) and you also vote for the mayor. They are paid a full-time² salary.

　　If you are a New Zealand citizen or Permanent Resident and have lived for one year in the same place, you will have your voting papers. They were posted to you about two weeks ago.

　　It is not easy to choose who to vote for. You should read the booklet which came with the voting papers. Some people have websites or are on Facebook. Sometimes you can go to a meeting and hear them speak.

　　You need to post your voting papers by Wednesday 9th October.

　　Listen to August 12th 2013 to hear more about local body elections.

　　Vocabulary

　　local body – local council.

　　deliver babies – a midwife or doctor delivers babies

1 footpaths   

人行小径，人行道( footpath的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are a lot of winding footpaths in the col. 山坳里尽是些曲曲弯弯的羊肠小道。
• There are many footpaths that wind through the village. 有许多小径穿过村子。

2 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。