Page 4 Advertisements Column 4

Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 220, 27 September 1878, Page 4

New Advertisements. p THE RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF CLUTHA. - t Notice is hereby given that a petition las been filed in the Resident Magistrate's I 3ourt of this District, holden at Balclutha, n the words ahd figures following, that is ;o say — We, the undersigned, electors of < ihe Borough of Balclutha, hereby declare ihat we verily believe that at the election bo the office of Councillors, holden at Balclutha on the 12th day of September, 1878, at which John Dunne, Allan Cameron Campbell, Joseph Potter, Peter Mason, George Hutchins, Robert Hogg, John Macdonald, William Tosh, and William Stewart were declared to be duly elected to the said offices, the said election is void, upon the following grounds : — On the 22nd November, 1877, the Municipality of Balclutha was brought under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1876. (See N.Z. Gazette of that date.) The Municipality had been divided into three wards before this, but upon the adoption of the new Act the Borough became an undivided one; A public meeting of the ratepayers was convened by the action of the Council to decide whether the Borough should remain undivided or whether it should be divided. The meeting of ratepayers was held in the late Newmarket. Hall on the 22nd April, 1878, when a majority of ratepayers decided that the Borough should be an undivided Borough. Rolls were accordingly prepared for the Borough as undivided, and an election was held on the 22nd day of June, 1878, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Mr Cramond, Councillor for North Ward, and all burgesses voted, or voters in the Borough voted at that election, not simply burgesses or voters for North Ward. In due course notice was given by the Returning Officer of the Borough for nominations for Councillors for . the Borough (the term of the old Council having expired) as an undivided Borough, not for Councillors for the various wards. Before the time for receiving nominations had arrived action was taken by the Mayor, on his own responsibility, without any petition from the burgesses or vote of the Council, to have the time extended for preparing the rolls for wards, which was accordingly done, and the elections held upon the advertisement calling for nominations for Councillors for the Borough as an undivided one. Nominations were received for the wards, and read out at the polling-booth - in South Ward by the Returning Officer [ of the Borough. j j No Returning Officers were appointed ' for the Wards, but deputies were appointed by the Returning Officer, and these deputies recorded their votes as any other ordinary ratepayers ; and further, they made no declaration before the Mayor or a Justice of the Peace. The result of the elections was read out at the various polling-booths in the different wards by the deputies, &c. In the advertisement calling for the nominations, only one polling-booth was named, while in the notice announcing the names of candidates and date of election a polling-booth was named in each ward. And we pray that inquiry may be made into the said election under the provisions of the Regulation of Local Elections Act, 1876, and that the said election may be declared to be void. Given under our hands this 19th day of September, 1878. \ William Lloyd, Candidate. John Moxhay, Elector. s Thomas Drennan, Elector. Declared and signed before me, tliis 19th day of / September, 1878. / John Smyth Fleming^ J. P.. - /-' ' Now, therefore, public notice' is hereby ] jiven that I will hold an inquiry as to the \ nattef alleged in such petition at the Resident Magistrate's Court-house at Bal- [ slutha on Monday, the 7th day of October, • .878, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. j E. H. CAREW, . '56 Resident Magistrate; ''