ELECTORAL ROLLS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9544, 2 December 1893, Page 3

ELECTORAL ROLLS.

Sir,— Sergeant Mitchell, the Registrar of Wectora for the Hawke's Bay electoral distiict, has been somewhat severely censnred for the way in which the roll for the district was compiled. Now Sergeant Mitchell beiug a Government official is prohibited from writing to any newspaper to defend any action of his own. Kuowiig him in bis other public duties to be a man who is strictly impartial and fair I had tbe curiosity to ask him how such cases as Mr Wan en stabed in his letter of November 30oh could have occurred, also of the general method of procedure adopted by Lim in striking names off the roll. His explanation is this : That with refereLce to the roll now in force the only cases where he strikes any names off the electoral roll are either on receipt of an application to striko a name off, in which case an electoral registered notice is sent through tua post to tbe bast known address, as t»ken from the roll itself of tbe person for or against whom the application is lodged, and after the said notice hns been returned to him from the local post>office stamped "unclaimed." or at the written request ot the person Interested, whose application is filed in the office, or at the written request of another registrar who intimates that the interested person wishes td remain on that registrar's roll, the siid person's name appearing on two or more rolls at the same time. Sergeant Mitchell has in his office tbe three electoral notices posted to the three persona mentioned by Mr Warren. These notices were addressed to Kuripapanga. On two of tbem as retnrned " Kuripnpangi " was scratched out, nnd the words "on Owhaoko station " written on the enve lopes. The one addressed to Michael Ryan had only Kuripapanga on the envelope, Now it is for Mr Warren or whoever takes charge of the mail bag at Owhaoko station to say whether these registered letters ever reached Owhaoko, and if not can they explain why were they detained at kuripapanga, wlich is only six milee away ? If they were detained at the Bridge eurely the fault lle-i with the postal authorities there. Sergeant Mitchell has clearly taken all possible precautions towards sending these men the necessary notice to ascertain whether or not the application to have these names struck off the roll was a proper one. As to who made the application to the registrar to strike the names oft the roll pn the grounds that they bad left the district is quite aside the question. In Mr Colenso'e case, tbe fact of his name not appearing on the new roll is not the result of its having been struck off, bnt was an omission in compiling the new roll from the provisional roll on which tbe name appears together with applications for enrolment received from June last np to the present month, comprising over four thousand names. This omission could have been set right had Mr Colenso taken tbe trouble to ascertain if bis name ivas on tbe roll, copies of which were scut to all post-effices and police stations for the inspection of the public. At the end of the said supplementary roll for tbe Hawke's Bay district is a synopsis of all the numbers on the roll that had been struck off for one of tbe reasons mentioned herein, so that any person by looking ac this list would see at a glance if bis number waa amongst these His nnmber could of coarse by comparing it with the number opposite his name. My excuee for writing at such length must be that I do not like to see a uian whom I know to be exceptionally painn taking and careful censured for mistakes over which he has no control, especially, when that person cannot dtfend himself. — I am, &c, C. A. FITZROY. Hastings, December 1, 1893. [Mr Colenso having on the 4th of October satisGed ( himeelt that his name was on the roll, was entitled by law to assume that it would remain on until he rocelved a notice from tbe registrar that it was objected to.— Ed. n.B.H.\