HIGHWAY PROXY VOTES.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXI, Issue 5571, 5 July 1875, Page 3

HIGHWAY PROXY VOTES.

To tHo Editor : This month (July) being the period when trustees for highway districts arc to bo elected, and when proxy votes (to be used at the meetings of the ratepayers) will be brought into use, it may be of some service to correct » popular impression, to the effect- -"That alt proxy votes must be signed by the ratepayer, giving the same in the presence of a .resident magistrate or a justice of the peace*" This is, beyond all question, a mistake, and the rejection of a batch of proxies, on the ground of their not being witnessed, might lead to serious consequences. The power to vote by proxy was first &'.ven by section 5 of the amended Highway Act, passed on the 22nd of December, 1871, subject to a proviso: That the authority to exercise any proxy vote should be iu writing, under the hand of the ratepayer appointing such proxy signed by nun in the presence of a witness. The Highway Acts of 1871 were repealed by the Act of 1874, which is now in force. .The twelfth section of the lastnamed Aot regalates voting by proxy at / all meetings of ratepayers ; and such ratepayers — if assessed, or liable to be rated, for property within the distriot on the 30th of June next preceding the meeting, and having on or before the said 30th of June paid all such rates as shall have become payable in respect of such property—are entitled to vote either in person or by proxy, 'nith this oxcoption — namely, that tho chairman of such meetings shall bo elected by the ratepayers personally present, and not by proxy. A proxy must of necessity be signed by the person giving it and if.siqned by a mark the mark should— for the sake of convenience and identification — be witnessed by a person capable of signing his (or her) name as a witness, bnt even this is not required by the Act, and the mark might be identified by any qualfied ratepayer who saw the .mark made. It seems probable that a part of section 12 of the Highways Act, 1874, was intended to enable a qualified ratepayer to &lvc a proxy vote to another person who was not a ratepayer ; but this part of the section is so imperfect, from the omission of the words unit** Miich proxy vote, as to be utterly unintelligible, and consequently of no force or effect. The defeotive passage stands in the form of a pro\'so, \h: — "Provided however, that the authority to exercise any proxy vote shall not be given to any person who is not a ratepayer unle$M such proxy vote shall be in writing under the hand of the ratepayer appointing such proxy, and shall have been si&aed by him in the presence of a resident magistrate or justioe of the peace, Ac., Ac. Probably I may add that some of the pnblished priuted forms of proxies are objectionable. The meetings of "ratepayers" being denominated meet : ngs of " trustees," and blanks being left to supply the days, dates and places, when ana where the meetings are expected to held. If these blanks are not filled up, or if they are inaoonrately supplied, the proxy becomes void. The subjoined form seems free from these objections.— I am, Ac., W. H. Tuftwm. Valentines, Maraetal The Highway District Mr. , I hereby appoint you to act as my proxy, and to vote for me at any meeting of ratepayers, or any adjournment thereof to be holden for the election of any Trustees or Trustee, or for making any rate for and in respect of the Highway District for the year commencing in 187..., and ending iu 187.... Dated this day of , 187....