REGISTRATION OF VOTERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 835, 16 March 1867, Page 2

REGISTRATION OF VOTERS.

(Prom the ' Canterbury Times.') The time has again come round when persons whose names are not on the electoral roll, but who have the qualification neces* sary to enable them to become voters, should send in their claims. The majority of our readers are, perhaps, not aware that during last session of the General Assembly" ' an act was passed to amend tbejlaw rela.-/ ting to the registration of persons qualified to vote. By this new act, which contain^* no fewer than fifty six clauses, the acts previously in force, namely * l ßegistration of Electors Act 1858," and the Registration of Electors Act 1858 Amendment Aot 1861," are repealed. ■••?■* . The act of 1858, after having been in force for three years, was found to be^too stringent in so far as it required that^eyery; ■■■_. claim to vote should be attested before a, , Justice of the Peace or Registration Officer, and the preamble to the Amendment Act of 1861 takes especial note of this, expressly declares that "it is expedient to simplify , the said form and to enable other persons to take such declarations as well as Justices v . of the Peace and Registration Officers/ simplifies the form of declaration to the schedule which has been in force for the last five years, and extends the time for receiving claims from one to three month*. The new act, to which we invite the Attention - of our readers, differs in some respied^irom r both the acts 'referred to, and these differences we shall briefly point out. Before proceeding to do so, however, we would, remark that instead of simplifying the machinery by which a person may record his claim to vote, as any new actinight have been expected to do, the legislation of last session makes it even more complicated than before. It is no doubt necessary to erect safeguards whereby the purity and bona fides of every electoral roll shall be most fully assured, but it is surely possible to combine with this such simplicity as shall at least throw no obstacles in the way of men who have neither the time, the inclination, nor the knowledge requisite to make them aware of their privileges, and how. they may obtain them. The Amendment Act of 1861 provided that any person who was entitled to have his name on the elec* toral roll should send in a olaim in the following form :-— , . To the Registration Officer of the Eleotoral District of I hereby give you notice that I claim .to . have my name inserted in the List of Voters for the said Eleotoral District, and that the particulars of my place of abode and qualification are truly Btatod in . the columns below. Atiested by „,a freeholder (or householder) of the colony. - • ■ Signed '....'„«;""% Christian name and Surname of I Place of the Claimant at full length j abode Nature Place where property situate, of and name and description Qualification, of the same. In this case the claimant had to see that the name of the electoral district— General not Provincial — was correctly filled in ; that his claim was properly attested by . a qualified elector, that the nature of his . qualification — whether freehold, household, or leasehold — and the place where it was situate were accurately described, and that his own name at full length and place of . abode were also given. There was no attestation before a Justice of the Peace or>T Registration officer necessary. . „ . The form of claim in the new act is as follows: — " , To the Registration Officer of the Eleotoral District of Christian name and surname of I Place of the Claimant at full length. | Abode Nature of . Place where property situate Qualification and name or description of same. X [name of Claimant in full] do hereby give you notice that I claim to have my name inserted in the List of Voters for the Elec*. toral Distriofc of [name of Eleotoral District] and I deolare that my name, place of reai* dence, and the nature and description of my qualification are stated truly in the abort columns. ; .. Signed and declared by ) the Claimant this day ( of in the jear j before me. J (Signed) An Eleotor of the District, , [Or Registration Officer, or J. P,] There is little actual difference between the two forms, but still it cannot be said that the alteration, suoh as it is, amounts to any simplification whatever. The new form is a trifle more elaborate— not one whit more easily understood. It is probable that the Revising Officer will still have to exercise his power of rejection in % great many instances. : The Electoral Act of 1865 provided that the Registration Officer, in the first week of the month of April in every year, after he had made an alphabetical list of all claims to vote which had been properly lodged during the prescribed time, should "forthwith cause such list to be published twice in one or two newspapers published within the electoral district for which such list shall be made, and if there be no such newspaper, then in one or two newspapers published at the capital town of the province in which such electoral district shall be situate, or at such other place as such Registration Officer shall deem best adapted to give full publicity to the same." The object of this enactment . is not left in doubt for a moment, and its necessity cannot be called in question. It seems that "full publicity" is no longer to, be desired, or can be attained in another way, for the act passed last session say?, without altering the time of publication although it specifies that " the name of the Registration Officer or Justice of the Peace, or elector who may have attested the '* sig« nature 1 ' of the claimant shall also be made public, that the Registration Officer shall " forthwith cause such list to be posted in some public and conspicuous places within. the electoral district for which such list shall be made." Then follows a proviso which may assist the Registrar-General in compiling his educational statistics, but which is not calculated to smooth the way of claimants to vote. It is this : " But the Registration Officer shall not insert in such lists the name of any person whose claim shall not purport to he signed by him, or whose claim shall not purport to have been duly declared." The words which we have put in italics imply that the Registration Officer is to reject all claims which are not duly signed by the persons lodging them. This is altogether new, and, as it appears to us, unnecessary, unless indeed it be intended as an indirect form of compulsory education. . Even in that case it can hardly be con^ sidered judicious or even practicable. The new act vests the appointment of Revising Officers in the "Judge of the Supreme Court resident in any judicial disi trict of the Supreme Court, or if there be

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more than one such Judge in the senior judge so resident." Hitherto the Governor has made the appointment. . Besides this change in the persorl appointing the Revising Officers it is further provided in the act of ,1866 that they shall be nominated in or about the month of March in every year instead of iff? or about the month of April as heretofore. The law remains the same as before with regard to the persons who are not to receive the appointment of Revising Officer. , These are the Superintendent of any province, any member of the House of Representatives or Provincial Council. Any one appointed a Revising Officer is not, for two years after the date of his appointment, eligible to be elected aa a member of the House of Representatives for any electoral district for which he shall have been so appointed, nor as Superintendent of the province in which the electoral district is situated, nor as a member of the Provincial Council for any district either wholly or partially included in the district for which he has been Revising Officer. The time during which the Revising Officers are to hold their courts is altered. Formerly they were directed to hold them " between ? the first day of June and the first day of August in every year ;" now, they^are..to.«be .held . " between the . fifteenth day of May. and the first day of July." The following addition is made to the clause regarding these courts in the new 80 fc. — « Provided always that no such court shall be held at any place, which- will-Bender it necessary: for any, claimant or pewon objected to desirous of attending the same to travel more than nine miles beyond the boundaries of the electoral district in respect of which such court is held." The machinery provided ' in the new act for purging the rolls is substantially what it was formerly. It is to be noted, however, that now the Returning Officer is directed that ''the name of any person whose name is on the roll and who shall be absent from the colony shall not solely by reason of such absence he expunged from the roll." While every Revising Officer is authorised to adjourn his court from time to time, he is expressly enjoined that no adjourned court may be held after the last day of June in any year. "After he has finished his labour, the Revising Officer is required, under the new act, to transmit the lists signed by himself to the Returning Officer "in every case before. the fifteenth day of July in each year." The completion of the rolls rests with the latter officer, who is allowed from the above-mentioned date till the last day of August in each year, to perform his work. From that day the .tolls come in force, and remain legal till the "first day of September in the next succeeding year.". The act of 1858 was somewhat different on this point, enacting that the copy of the roll completed by the Returning Officer for the district should be the roll of persons entitled to vote at any election for the district to which it referred taking place " between the last day of September in the year wherein such electoral roll shall have been made, and the first day in October in the next succeeding year but one!" There is a clear gain of one month to the electors under the new act, which is obtained by accelerating the still too tardy movements of the Revising Officers. We see no reason why -it should take five months of each year to prepare and .finally complete the electoral rolls. The last alteration which we have to notice is that while under the act of 1858 the several offices of Registration Officer, Revising Officer, and Returning Officer, or any two of them, might be held by the same person at the same time, the act of 1866 provides that the first and last only may be held by one and the same person at the same time. We do not observe that any date is fixed by the new act itself when it shall come into force.