The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1861.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XV, Issue 877, 6 April 1861, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1861.

Registration is a process which a number of electors will not: understand forms an essential part of self-government. Before any person can look upon himself as an unit in the political body corporate, he must register his name as an elector; till he so registers he is not one of tjie public which elects representatives to legislate, claims the control of the general purse, or calls a responsible Ministry to account. The time has passed, for this year, during which remonstrances addressed to the public on the score of registration can be of practical use; but a few points present themselves, when the importance of the registration process is considered, which it may be serviceable to point out to the framers of our electoral system. The present form of Registration is peculiarly clumsy. There i& a claim to be made in certain words, arranged in particular lines and columns ; this claim must be signed and declared to by the claimant himself in presence of a Justice of the Peace; and finally, it must be sent in to the Registration Officer. At every step there is an obstacle. With all the help which the newspapers give liberally, the very form of the claim is a serious difficulty even to educated men ; it is so painfully complicated. First there is a notice in a certain form that'the claimant is about to claim, and the claimant must sign his name or make his mark to this notice. Then there are four columns, with headings to each, in a shape which only a practised clerk can render intelligible by pen and ink. Then, under these headings, the claimant must put in his name again, with all those particulars added which he wishes to appear on the roll. Then there must be a declaration made before a Magistrate, and filled in in writing upon the same paper, specifying the name of the claimant a third time; which declaration, carefully written out in due form, the claimant has to put his name to a fourth time at the bottom. The document is not yet complete; for the Justice before whom the declaration is made and signed must testify to the same in formal language and affix his Magisterial name to the foot of all. We are not making too much of these difficulties, for electors in this country reside, not* only where printing presses work and assistance is abundant, but also where ! pen ink and paper are hardly come by. I But the form of the claim is as nothing compared to that which is an essential part of it—the declaration by the claimant in presence of a Justice. Magistrates are created by the Queen's grace and the Superintendent's favor, and are by no means indigenous to the soil. Though theJ.P. is acclimatised, here' and flourishes abundantly, like the house-fly, the rat, and other British institutions, he maintains the character for which his associate the policeman is famous, of never being at hand when he is most wanted. Hundreds of electors live where it would be many days'

work to find a Magistrate, and are in effect deprived of the franchise altogether, except under the circumstance of a Justice going to them, with time and forms to spare. We are aware of several instances occurring during the last month, of Magistrates casually passing through certain districts of this province and being set upon by bodies of hungry claimants for registration, whose chance oi being enrolled was about slipping from them for- another year, as it had done last year and the year before.

As the law stands now, it is necessary that any man who wishes to secure his name on the roll should himself ride or walk to the Registration office, however distant it may be, taking the particulars in his pocket; then fill his claim up in the presence of the Registration Officer, and place it when complete with his own hands in the appointed place. This is surely not the way to bring free institutions home to the people. And it must be remembered that the roll is not once filled up and done with, but that each year there must in the nature of things arise numbers of new claims which need record.

We acknowledge that reasons have been given, though we have never been conscious of the existence of any such in this province, why care should be taken- to keep the roll pure from fictitious claims. But the remedy is worse than the disease, if by its application numbers who have a valid claim are in effect disfranchised. If no better arrangement can be made there ought to be a travelling registration officer to take claims upon the spot, where he would be able to judge far better of their validity than he can in his office in town. The periodical publication, of the lists, for objections to be laid, would obviate fraud. If this amendment be hopeless, at least the whole year round should be available for registration instead of a single month.