THE Evening Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1910, 19 June 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1869.

Mr Reynolds has once more introduced into the General Assembly the question of vote by ballot j a practice long since established in Victoria, and now advocated so warmly and influentially in England that at no distant period it is almost certain to be adopted. None need be surprised at this. The surprise is that any should object to so obviously fair a course of proceeding. At every election, civic or parliamentary, pressure, in one form or other, is brought to bear upon a lai’ge portion of the electors. In England, added to

pressure, have been modes of corruption a nr) purchasing of votes that have so perverted the sense of right and wrong in many boroughs as to lead voters to consider the sale of their suffrages part of their privileges. In the Colonies there is generally more independence and less money spent in securing a seat in Parliament ] but it is not less true that wherever personal influence can be used to bias electors it is not spared. It is all very well for a gentleman like Mr Dillon Bell, to stand on his privileges and say, that lie has never been afraid to vote publicly, and he does not see why anybody else should. That is just the very last thing that persons in his position fail to see. It seems so easy for a man in independent circumstances to set the opinion of others at defiance, that it does not appear to enter into his mind that another can hesitate. Even the Acts of Parliament passed session after session, presenting every conceivable remedy for intimidation, bribery, and corruption o x " cepting the one simple and effective one, the ballot—fail to convince that the fear which he despises is wide-spread. How absurd it would be to waste so much time, talent, and legal and parliamentary lore on an idea! evil. Even the provisions in every Electoral Act against bribery and treating suggest that experience has proved the prevalence of the system ] P.ud the commonsense of mankind has pronounced its condemnation. But what is it that is urged against the baUot ? Merely some sentimental jargon that closely examined means nothing. Me Dillon Bell has never been a .raid to let the vote he gives be publicly known. Admitted ; but what right ha ye the public to know it 1 The e:;erc : se of the f anchise is not a trust for which a man using it is liable to account to another for. It is an individual exp -ession of opinion, with, which no one but the vouer has anything to do. If he imagines that the public are so deeply Interested in the manner in which he has used his privilege, that it should be made publicly known, no one would object to his paying a town crier for proclaiming it, posting it on the walls, or advertising it in the newspaper, in addition to his catching every friend by the button, and communicating the intelligence in propria persona. His vanity of independence may be very easily gratified. But what we condemn in the boast is, that it is put forward as a reason why every other man should be compelled to vote publicly if he votes at all, whether or not he cares about his opinions being known. ■ If the law prescribes a penalty for aigiven offence, it is bound to provide every means for the protection of persons liable to be tempted to commit it. The Ballot is a most effectual cure for every offence against electoral morality, If a candidate descends to treating qr bribing, he may spend his money very freely under a system of open voting, and have some slight security that his supporters, warm with drink and the prospect of pay, may reel up to the polling booth, and hiccup out his name as their chosen representative. If any of his friends, in their zeal for his return, choose to threaten a refractory tradesman with the loss of their patronage unless he records his vote at their bidding, they may know, under a system of open voting, whether or not he has dared to disobey their mandate. If any employer has persons under his control who have the audacity to differ from his views, a system of open voting discloses who they are, and if he be an unscrupulous partizan, it enables him to mark them for future punishment or dismissal. Such has been the system in England, and it would be absurd to doubt that In degree such is the system everywhere under a custom of open voting. It needs no logic to prove that such corrupt and tyrannical practices are productive of the worst results. In some instances they prevent an exercise of the franchise, in others they compel hypocrisy, and in a far greater degree they tend to lower the value of a vote in the eyes of those who have power to give it, and to lead them to a distorted estimate of the obligation they are under to use it conscientiously and truthfully. The ballot is a sure remedy for all these evils. Under its shield a man can act conscientiously. He need answer to no one, he need fear no one. None but the most credulous would invest money in votes without some security that he obtained them for his outlay : but under the ballot there is none. He might make up his mind that he who would stoop to take a bribe would not hesitate to sell the briber. We trust that in New Zealand no antiquated prejudices will interfere to prevent its adoption.

The Taieki Election.—The poll was fpfcftn to-day, but as returns have to come in from many outlying districts, the result •will not be made known until Monday at two p.m.

H.M. Gaol, Dunedin.—The following is the state of H.M. Gaol, Dunedin, for the week ending the 19th of June, 1869 : Awaiting trial, 1 male, 0 females; penal servitude, 24 males, 0 females; hard labor, 69 males, 16 females; imprisonment, 2 males, 0 females; in default of bail, 2 males, 1 female ; debtors, 3 males, 0 females ; total. 101 males, 17 females. Received during the week, 6 males, 2 females ; discharged, 5 males, * females.