RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3902, 30 April 1877, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Saturday, April 28. (Before R. Beetham Esq., Resident Magistrate.) DRUXKENSTESS. Sarah Hate, who appeared with a baby in liei- amis, was charged with having been drunk and incapable in the streets on Friday. The case was dismissed with a caution from his Worship, the woman being afterwards sent to join her husband, who, she stated, was a flax-cutter working in the country. WAIPUKURAU ELECTION. His Worship then gave judgment as follows in the mutter of the petition of Henry Robert Russell and others against the election of Sydney Johnston for the Waipukurau riding, in the County of Waipawa : — I see no other course open to me birt to declare this election void, on the ground that irregularities have occurred tending to defeat the fairness of the election. The petition discloses four grounds on which it is sought to set the election aside. First — That the roll of the Central Ruataniwha was not a bona fide roll. Second — That while cumulative voting was accepted by the returning officer's deputy at Ashley-Clinton, the returning officer at Waipukurau only allowed single votes to those voters on the Ruataniwha portion of his roll. Thirdly — That the Makaretu highway district was treated as an outlying district, and that the votes of those persons liable to the payment of rates in that district were refused. Fourthly — That persons voted who were not entitled to vote, or gave more votes than they were entitled to give. The irregularity, Avhich tended in my opinion to defeat the fairness of the election, is shewn in the second ground. The returning officer is placed in a very peculiar and unfortunate position as regards the roll upon which the election must be conducted under the Local Elections Act. A roll must be forthcoming, or the election cannot take place under that Act. (Clearly it cannot take place under any other.) The returning officer is left entirely to his own resources as to the way in which he will procure this roll. The Act says nothing whatever about it. I think he adopted the best means of obtaining it, by applying to the chairmen of the various road boards for a copy of their rolls. Had it been shewn that fair and even voting had taken place upon a roll, however obtained, giving the names of those persons entitled to vote, I should certainly not have disturbed the election. There does not seem to me to be any magic in the word "centre" as prefixed to the Ruataniwha roll, which would prevent the names on that roll being taken by ~the returning officer to form a portion of his roll so long as it could be shewn (as from the evidence of Col. Herrick it seems to have been), that such roll included the names of all persons entitled to vote at a road board election. But when, the roll having been taken by him, and a copy of it Hunt tolas deputy at Ashley-Clinton with instructions to allow cumulative voting, the returning officer decides after the commencement of the poll at Waipukurau to allow only single voting himself —an element of unfairness at once presents itself, which undoubtedly rendered the fairness of the election an impossibility. If a voter possessing five votes presents them at Ashley-Clinton they are recorded ; another

voter possessing the same qualification can only register one vote at Waipukurau. In dealing with the Olive election, I have already expressed my opinion that cumulative voting was contemplated by the Act. I see ho reason to alter my opinion. Therefore a scrutiny wo\ild not meet the requirements of this petition, as it merely gives the power to strike off votes, whereas here the dead men must be brought to life again. So far as Makaretu is concerned, I think it was rightly dealt with as an outlying district. In the interpretation clause of the Counties Act we find that an outlying district means any part of a county which is not included in a road district. A road district means any road, highway, or other district within the jurisdiction of a road board as herein defined, and a road board is defined to mean the Council, board, trustees, or the persons or body, as the case may be, having the management, control, or care of road or highways. There was no such board, therefore there could be no road district. With respect to the fourth ground, I suppose it refers to cumulative voting, a subject which has already been dealt with. I cannot but attribute the failure of this election in a very great measure to the extraordinary action taken by the scrutineers on the polling day. There appears to have been not one returning officer, but three returning officers, and the result has of course been utter confusion. The duties of a scrutineer are quite distinct from that of a returning officer, and they certainly should not be permitted to interfere in the conduct of the election inside the polling booth. Clauses 24, 26, 30 and 34 of the Local Elections Act are explicit enough upon the point. In this case I see no reason to saddle the costs on either candidate. The election will therefore be declared void, without costs.