NORTHERN MAORI SEAT PETITIONERS ORDERED TO PAY COSTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 57, 9 March 1915, Page 8

NORTHERN MAORI SEAT PETITIONERS ORDERED TO PAY COSTS.

(If TELEORtPI— PRBIS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, This Day. Justices Hosking and Stringer, who heard the petition against the return of Tau Henare for th,e Northern Maori seat, to-day ordered the . petitioners, two Natives, to pay the costs, which amount to between £150 and £200. PETITION OUGHT NOT TO HAVE BEEN PRESENTED. Mr Justice Hosking said that not sufficient ground had been shown why the Court should depart from the rule that tho successful side should get costs. Mr. Justice Stringer remarked that the petitioners had proceeded on a bare technicality. They knew or ought to have known it was necessary to go beyond that in order to have the election declared void. To succeed, the irregularity must affect the result of the election ,• yet the petitioners knew or ought to have known that the only effect of the irregularity was adverse to the successful candidate. It was proved from evidence for the petitioners that in all probability a great number of votes would have been given in Tau Henare's favour. In view of the facts known to petitioners the petition should not have been presented. The Judges remarked that the charges were not to the discredit of the returning officer.