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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 57, 31 July 1862, Page 2

Another of the annoyances to which the Province of Hawke's Bay is so frequently subject under the paternal care of the pre-

sent Ministry is the recent disclosure of the fact that all (with a single exception) of this year’s new claims for the electoral suffrage will be disallowed by an Electoral Revision Court to be held in Wellington this day ! in consequence of an error of the printer who prepared the forms for filling and signature in omitting the word “ truly” from the de. duration. We are very far from supposing that any blame for wilful wrong in this matter rests on any one person, but that gross carelessness can be charged is certain. The publisher of such forms could not have been too careful in a matter of so much importance, involving as it does the interests of so many of our settlers in the constitution of our next Provincial Council, and probably General Assembly as well. And it is strange, too, that the blunder was not detected at the office to which the claims were sent long before the time allotted for receiving these claims (three months) expired. But what we most complain of now in this matter is, that no opportunity is afforded to the disfranchised claimants to rectify the mistake. Information of the above circumstance only reached Napier by the Queen on Thursday last, rendering it clearly impossi- , ble for any steps to be taken in time for the hearing of the cases at a Court to be held in Wellington to-day. We believe, however, that the attention of the Attorney-General will be directed to this matter ; and we hope, if it is found that the omission of one word from the declaration is sufficient to render the claims void, that an adjournment of the Court will be made so as to enable it to be held at Napier, and so serious an error to be rectified.