VOTERS’ CONFUSION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22318, 1 May 1947, Page 6

VOTERS’ CONFUSION

BOUNDARY LIMITS AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS EVIDENCE FOR BAXTER (P.A.) HAMILTON, April 30. The fact that aerial photographs aa cl been taken to determine where tne boundaries of the electorate fall in relation to particular farm properties was mentioned in the Electoral Court yesterday afternoon during evidence called by counsel for the respondent. Maps, however, were not put in in evidence yesterday. It was announced by PTr. T. P. Cleary that no evidence would be called in support of 11 objections to persons resident outside the electorate. One of these was on the lists of both the petitioner and the respondent and in the other 10 cases it was admitted by the petitioner that the voters lacked tne residential qualification and that their votes must be disallowed. Residential Qualification No evidence would be called in three of the seven cases of voters listed as not having three months’ residence in Raglan at the date of the election. In one instance it had been found that the voter was entitled to vote, in another the voter had left for England and w f s not available to give evidence, while in the third case the name was common to both lists. Evidence was called .u support of the other four objections in this group. One witness was Bert Meldrum, farmer, who said he and .ns vAfe on eietion day went to vote at the Koromitua booth. They asked for papers to vi.le as absentees for Haurai.t, which they believed was their rightful ole jura it at that time. However, they were given

voting papers for Rag 1 an, and when they told an official in tc.e polling booth that this was a mistake, the reply was that they should vote for Raglan. “Your vote seems to have been recorded for Raglan in spite of you-sc'f.” observed the Chief Justiee, Sir Humphrey O'Learv, who maria it clear that the Court did not blame Mcltnum in any degree. Evidence of Farmer The first witness called from a group of 22 voters chi llenged by tne '< espondent as having removed and (nullified in an electorate other than Raglan was Thomas Harris, of Fatenngi, farmer, who said that after working tor live years on a farm in the Raglan electorate he moved in June of last year to another farm which he now knew .o be in the Waikato electorate. Harris said for some time after moving he was uncertain as to what his electorate was because the boundary ran within about 10 chains of his house. However, he was now enrolled for Waikato. He completed an enrolment card shortly after the rolls closed last year. Mr. R. E. Tripe, for the petitioner, asked for an opportunity to verify whether Harris is, in fact, now living in the Waikato electorate. Mr. R. Hardie Boys, for the respondent, said the voter's own evidence of his enrolment should be sufficient proof that he was now in Waikato.' However, if that were to be disputed, he would produce aerial photographs which had been taken and he would call surveyors and other evidence to establish the matter beyond doubt.