THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15279, 15 May 1915, Page 7

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

1 ■ *» TAUMARTXUI SEAT. ELECTION DECLARED VOID. MR JENNINGS NOT QUALIFIED. tPRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM. 1 AUCKLAND, May 14. The Court of Enquiry lidd that Mr j W. T. Jennings, the Opposition oandi- j date for tho Taunuiruuui seat at the last general election, did not reside in the Taumarunui" electorate according to the provisions of the Act. but in New Plymouth. He was not. therefore, qualified to be on the roll its an elector. Tho Court was compelled to uphold thnt Mr Jennings was not, at tho date oi the election, qualified to be a member of the House of Representatives. The Court, in giving ii* judgment, remarked that Mr Jennings evidently thought it better to transfer his registration from Now Plymouth to tho district in which he took so groat an interc..t. and which ho desired to represent. He had never, however removed thither or become in any sense a resident there. For those reasons tho Court hold that ■_ taking tho facts as strongly as they could bo put in respondent's favour, his vote as an doctor on the Tauniarunui roll must be disallowed. In this result tho Court was compelled to hold thnt respondent, at the date of the election, was not qualified to bo olootod as a member of the House of Representatives. Discussing the electoral irregularities, tho Court, remarked that at Mahirakaii, the principle of election by secret ballot was disregarded. Their Honours also commented on the great discrepancy between the number of papers in" the ballot boxes and tho number of names marked off on the rolls as indicating persons who had voted, the former being far in excess of thc latter. The results of such discrepancies, however, could only be discovered, if at all. by a scrutiny. They could not help thinking that there had been what was commonly called "roll-stuffing," accounting for the presence on the roll of a considerable number of Maoris, non-residents, aliens, and infants who were not likely to have taken steps on their own initiative to get there. The Court did not think it necessary to order a scrutiny or to express an opinion on the numerous and difficult questions raised, having decided on the basis of tho candidate's electoral qualification. The Court accordingly held the election void. On the* suggestion of petitioner s counsel, each party was ordered to pay his own costs, with the exception of tho full Court costs, which wero fixed at twenty guineas, and which respondent was ordered to pay. The Court refused to «*rant indemnity to John Burns Young on the ground that his evidence was untrustworthy and unbelievable. Counsel for petitioner informed the Court that the six months within which A'ouno- could be prosecuted had expired, but the Registrar, acting on the advice of tho Crown Law Offico, had already laid an information against Young, and would now proceed with A question has arisen as to the eligibility of Mr Jennings for candidature at the by-election for the Taumarunui seat. Authorities consulted to-day expressed the opinion that as it was not necessary for a candidate to be on the roll as an | elector of tho district ho actually sought to roprcsont in Parliament so long as he was on tho electoral roll ot some other district, and as tho Court had decided that Now Plymouth was his place of residence, he would be entitled to enrolment upon declaration on tho Taranaki electoral roll, from which he obtained transference to the Taumarunui roll last November. In such case Mr Jennings, as an elector on the New Plymouth roll, would be quite eligible as a candidate for tho Taumarunui or any other seat in New Zealand, providing that ho exercised his vote at the previous election. A very fine point was probably involved hero.