Evening Post. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29,1881. TWO CURIOUS COMPLICATIONS

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 151, 29 December 1881, Page 2

Evening Post. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1881. TWO CURIOUS COMPLICATIONS

It eeems that the new Parliament is not completely elected even yet. TVo -write have not been returned, and two constituencies accordingly still remain unrepresented. One is Hokitika ; the name of the other has not transpired, but it is understood to be a Southtru electorate. The non-return hese two write is due in both oases to which ace undoubtedly peculiar,

but which nevertheless might perhaps have been anticipated and provided for had not Parliament bean in such a desperate hurry to break up after a comparatively brief session. But the anxiety of hon. members to draw their honorarium for work not done, and then to rush off home and spend it, caused a large amount of loose, Blipshod and defective legislation to be placed on the Statute Book. We have a Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, which, while Draconian in the severity of its intentions, has proved an utter failure and nullity so far as any practical r 63 alt is concerned, if, perhaps, we I except the committal for trial of ft Legislative Councillor on a charge of personation. So alao there is the ridiculous Gaming and Lotteries Act, which two other Legislative Councillors are among the first to set at defiance, and which is now argued to have haif'a-doJen different and inconsistent meanings. And next we find that the Regulation of Elections Aot, which was simply whisked through Parliament, does not provide for either of the only two difficulties which have arisen in regard to the first election held under its rules. It it true that clause 74 contains the old clumsy expedient of removing impediments by Order in Council, but even this loose and awkward method can scarcely be appl : ed to one of the misadventures which we recorded yesterday, although possibly by fie^ly stretching the law it may be utilised for getting rid of the 'Other. One of the new features in the Kegalation of Elections Aot passed last session was the authorisation of tha transmission of electoral writs by telegraph. Clauses 52 to 57 inclusive contain most elaborate provisions on this head. In the case nnder notice the writ was telegraphed to the Returning Officar, who duly "repeated" it back, sni received the sjcond repetition as required by law to ensure perfect accuracy. All that was straightforward enough, and the election was held in due course, the poll taken, and the winning candidate declar d dnly elected. But no writ was returned. The e'erk of the writs waited in daily expectation j of receiving it, but it never came. Nor was this surprising. Ia Mr. Dodgson's del'ghtful nonsense-verses " The Walrus and the Carpenter " odour thfise two tdaching lines — "No birds were flying in the sky — There were no birds to fly !" — and bo, of course, as there were no birds, they could not fly. Similarly, as there was no writ to return, it couldn't be returned. But what became of it? Well, that is jast the question whioh only one man can auswer, and he displays unaccountable reticence on the subject. It is quite a sen-sation-novel mystery. The Clerk of the Writs telegraphed to the Returning Officer to return the writ firthwith. The latter responded, with truly Tootsian politeness, that he should really be most happy to do so, but the fact was he had no writ to return, and never Had any. This was indeed startling intelligence. The Clerk retorted angrily, ''But jou received and acknowledged my telegram." " O yes," rejoined the oourteous Returning Officer, "of course I did, and I held the election according to its instruction." The Clerk of the Writs tore his hair, and instantly telegraphed back with ill-con-cealed ferocity, " But that telegram ivas the writ; return it instantly or — " &c, &o. Ihe officer replied he would do so with the utmost pleasure, but really he could not lay his hand on it just now ; "in fact, 1 cannot exactly say what has become of it ; in Bhort, I did not know it was an important document, being on common paper telegraph-forms instead of parchment, and -, -and bo on, the obvious inference conveyed being that the sacred material of that writ on which the election of one of our legislators hangs had been used as waste paper for some purpose or other. This ia quite too dreadfully sacrilegious to contemplate with equanimity, but the faot remains that the writ has gone, and therefore cannot be returned. Tho question what ia to be done under these harrowing circumstances, has been submitted to the Law Officers, who are yet incubating their opinion. Most likely they will advise that under clause 74 the Governor in Council may declare the election valid. Still we confess our inability to see how thia can be done ¦without grave irregularity. The clause inns thus:-" When any accidental or unavoidable impediment, misfeasance, or omission happens, the Governor in Council may take all auoh measures as may be 'necessary for removing or rectifying the same, or may declare any or all of the proceedings at or for any election valid; notwithstanding suoh impediment, misfeasance, or.omission." But the total disappearar.ee ota writ goes eomewhat beyond tho kind of incident intended by this olause. Ihe door may be opened to serious electoral abuses if euoh a case as this can be dealt with by the .Governor in Council and an Order in Connoil made to take thel place of a duly returned writ, which should be- wholly independent of any interference . , on the part of the \f xecutive' of the ' day. Plainly tho Act is defective as not providing for the easily imaginable case of the accidental destruction of a writ. Ihe other case is of Btill greater' difficulty. There is too much leaspn'.tjo .fearlfchat two Deputy •Returning Qmbera-'in jihe Hokitika district have "been •drowned. on their' way to -the Returning Officer with the returns from two distant polling, .places, which, consequently, were lost with them. Nearly three weeks his elapsed since they started on their journey, and they have not been seen or heard of, although a vigorous search has been made. Meanwhile the Returning Officer has applied for an extens'ou of the time prescribed for the return of the writ, in the forlorn hope that tho missing returns may "even yet' come to hand. Of this we fear there is but little chance, and we regard the returns as irrecoverably lost. It will at. once be seen that this constitutes a fatal; flaw ijjS the election, because it* will be impossible to obtain an authentic official return of, the voteß recorded at the two places. It is not Sufficient to have a mere knowledge of the numbers. That proves nothingHegally. All the votes may have been informal, or double ones, or recorded by non-eHtofms. Of course this i 3 improbable, but there is nothing to chow the contrary. N r is the difficulty averred by its being demonstrated, as we believe to be the' case).that all the votes of residents in those two localities if given for one candidate could not have affected the reßult. Tliat goes for nothing, because it does not follow that only the persons resident near those two polling places voted thereit. Electors can vote at any polling pla.e they choose in the district, and no legal proof exists as to how many exercised that liberty by voting at the two booths in question. Therefore we do not see how this defect is to be remedied save by a fresh election. Here, again, the Act is palpably defective. Provision ought to have been made for such an occurrence. So far from being an unlikely one, the only wonder is tha,t it has not happened before.- ,It is within our own knowledge that at least half-a-dozen ocoaßion.Buch a disaster has only been escaped by so narrow a " shave " as to be well nigh miraculous. In several distaste .of both islands the deputy retnrning officers have to travel many miles over dangerous and almost impassable country to remote polling places, fording or swimming swift unbridged river 3, and incurring other imminent penlß. It is not at aIL strange that at lost two of these offioers should have met the late which many of their class have often co nairowly escaped. The dofect in the Act is the omission to provide some simple remedy in the event of such a mishap. Speaking offhand we should say that after a due interval had been al'owed the poll might, be taken over again at tho place affected without repeating the whole election. But this is not authorised by the ABt. Nor does there Beem to be any provision for the case of do return being made to a writ, to the effect that in such case a new wr.t might be issued, and another election held. As it is, we do not Bee any legal or regular way out of the difficulty at all. The. writ issued last, month is Btill in force, and as it cannot be returned until all the vo^63 polled are in, while it is tolerably certain they can never be received, aid the law has not contemplated the ca-.e of a nonreturn to a writ, the whole affair is a nice little muddle: It will be interesting to see by what process of legal ingenuity the Law Officers of the Government will show a way out of these two very curious complications.