PATEA ELECTION PETITION

Evening Post, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 7 October 1901, Page 6

PATE A ELECTION PETITION

[BT TELEG3APH— PBESS ASSOCIATION.] WANQANUI, This Day. The hearing of the petition by William Henry Parker against the return of Frederick Henry Haselden as member of the Ho-use of Representatives for Patea began, at noon to-day in. the Supreme Court, before the Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Williams. Dr. Pindlay appeared for the! petitioner, and Mr. Essam for the respondent. The petition set forth that after the I poll was tdk&x the Returning Officer wrongfully opened ±he parcels of ballotpapers and extracted the voting papers of Frederick Charles Saphir and Arthur Nesbett, and! disallowed votes cast in favotlr of Mr. Hislop. The petitioner therefore prays that the election be declared void. An amended petition was put in as follows : — That at the election Arthur Nfcsbitt, farmer, described on the roll as a settler, voted for Mr. Hisi lop, but upon counting the votes after the close of the election the officer at the booth wrongfully disallowed Nesbitt's vote. That John Everhardt, of Mangaonoho, applied to the Deputy Returning Officer at Mangaohoho for a ballot-paper, but was refused, though he (Everhardt) claimed to be the person on the ro*l. That Ellen K. Mullens similarly applied at Mangaonoho, and was simlarly refused. That, Phoebe Jane Thorby, of Rata, whose name appeared on the roll as Phoebe Jane Shorby, was refused a bajlot-paper, although she rightly claimed that she was the person whose name was manifestly misprinted on the roll. The name of James Bourke, of Rata, was similarly misprinted Burke. Further, that other persons besides those named in the petition and who were on the electoral roll applied for certain ballot-papers, but were' refused by the officers in charge of the booths; also, that certain names were wrongfully struck off the rolls, all of '■whom would have voted for Mr. Hislop. Argument is proceeding as to whether the amended claim is admissible.