The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1881.

Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 3525, 23 November 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1881.

For the causa that lacks aulitance. For the wrong that needs resistanc For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

In the approaching elections various impor. tant alterations in the electoral law will be tested for -the first time. Since the conatituencica were last called upon to elect a new Parliament, the franchise has undergone very considerable modification. Manhood suffrage has taken the place of a property and household qualification, male adults of every class have become qualified under the residential vote, the means of registering has been simplified, and the time extended. That these changes have not produced such large additions to the rolls as might have been anticipated, is due, no doubt, to the fact that large accumulations of the dead or removed have been swept off the rolls in the rcvisal, and the rolls represent more closely the actual voting power. One of the first effects of this change should be a closer approximation of the votes actually recorded to the names on the roll. The hours of polling are also extended by the Regulation of Elections Act till six o'clock at night. A still more momentous alteration is that contained in the provision for holding all the elections on one day. This would tend, one may suppose, to strike at the power of any party organisation intended to exert control [over all the con. tests, because it would be impossible

without au almost unlimited number of workers to carry on tho war nt every point with effect. Iv past election campaigns it has been usual to concentrate all power ou ouch contest iiu it arose, giving the whole weight of the party organisation to it. That course now will be practically out of tho question.

Coming to the Operation of the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, the law, rigidly adhered to, would put an entirely altered face on the "613 time'1 election custom?', No cabs, no beer or refreshments, no paid touts and canvaßser*. But wo have very little doubt that tho strict letter of the Act will be evaded. There is nothing to prevent a voter from driving to the poll in his private conveyanoe t or in taking friends with him, and we shall not be surprised to see considerable rivalry among the committees in bringing their individual resources to aid the common object. It will, however, be a most satisfactory surprise should anticipations of any general entlcavour to avoid tho spiHt of the law be falsified. The new legislation tonds to elicit a true expression of the will of the people. It provides for the quiet.unostentatious record of au elector's judgment in the! choice of his representative in Parliament. It secures that end, and in doing so represses, as much as penalties can repress, any practices tending to sway the vote unduly or jCorruptly. It is to tho interests of the electors, therefore- that tho law should be observed, and' candidates will iv the long run also find themselves gainers rather than losers by the change. The now legislation under which the elections aro to be held, though basod upon luwa in other colonies, is to a certain extent experimental, aucl its results will be watched with much curiosity. To get ovor nil tho bustle and worry of polling iv ono day will bo a relief, but tho concentrated excitcmout, the hopes and fears of that eventful nine hours, who shall adequately describo 1