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Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 218, 13 September 1878, Page 5

The poll in the election of Councillors for the Borough of Balclutha took place yesterday. The result will be found elsewhere in this issue. We regret, however, to say that there appears a serious doubt, to say the least of it, as to the legality of the proceedings that have taken place in this election. The election was conducted under the Regulation of Local Elections Act, 1876. Section 6of that Act provides "There shall be a Returning Officer for every district, who shall be appointed by the local body, and shall -'hold office until his removal by such local body, resignation, incapacity, or death, in any of which events the local body shall appoint a Returning Officer in his stead." Clause 8 provides that every such officer shall, before entering upon his duties, make and sign before a Justice of the Peace, or before the chairman of the local body, a declaration sot forth in the first schedule to the Act. Clause 10 provides " Not loss than fourteen clear days before any election to fill an ordinary vacancy, the Returning Officer shall give public notice thereof, and shall in such notice appoint a place within the district, and a day not less than five nor more than ten days after such publication for the nomination of candidates." Now, upon turning to the interpretation clause of the Act, we find the word "district" means amongst other tilings "the ward of a borough." Thus the Returning Officers for the several wards should have been appointed by the local body — the Borough Council — which they were not. Not a single Returning Officer was so appointed for any of the wards. Each Returning Officer has to give notice of the time and place fixed for the nomination. This I: hoy did not do. Further, the nomination must take place at some place within the, waul, whereas the i nominations for all the wards took place at the Athcnamm buildings in South Ward. Those were held before a Returning Officer appointed for the whole borough, and not for any special ward. Had he been appointed Returning Officer for South Ward tho proceedings that have taken place in the election for that ward would probably have been legal. As it is they have not boon carried out according to the provisions of the Act, and, like those for the other wards, are therefore illegal. Clause 50 of the Act .refers to inquiries into disputed elections, and says ! " If upon any such inquiry it appears that any notice of the time and place of an election was not fjiven. within the time, or in the manner herein r;: r iuired, the whole- election " shall be void.'" This is plain enough, and it simply means that no election of Councillors for the Borough of Balclutha has yet taken place.