THE BAY OF ISLANDS ELECTORAL ROLL ENQUIRY. (PER NORTH OTAGO TIMES SPECIAL WIRE.) Wellington, June 18.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2226, 19 June 1879, Page 2

THE BAY OF ISLANDS ELECTORAL ROLL ENQUIRY. (PER NORTH OTAGO TIMES SPECIAL WIRE.) Wellington, June 18.

Mr Bryce's report on the Bar of Island* roll-staffing, is in be published ai a tap* plement to the Gazette. He narrates tht oonrat of the inquiry, and proceeds to review the circumstances of the constituency for some years past. Ue says that up to the year 1871 political feeling in the Bay of Islands was in a state whioh may bo described as calm and peaceful. The old mission families, their oonneo tions and friends, rested placidly in the calm assurance that they had a prescriptive right to control the pnblio feeling and political action of the district, In the general election of 1871, however, the •inoerity of the political atmosphere was rudely disturbed, for it was fouud that their chosen candidate (Mr Carletou) was to be opposed by Mr M'Leod, and incredible as it must have seemed to many, the latter gentleman was actually returned for the district Tho other following elections are then noticed, and John Lundon's determination, after his defeat in 1873, to make the roll more farorable to himself. The proceedings of the various revision courts are reviewed, and Mr Lundon's conduct in disallowing native claims based on Grown grants is considered. Mr Bryco then goes on to say : " I proceod now to other features of the inquiry, and as it appears to me that, in a limited sense, some of the parties involved are practically placed on their trial, I need not hesitate to refer to the personal motives and actions of persons connected with it. I have already pointed out that Mr Lundon's apparent object in getting up the Maori olaims was to render the electoral roll more favor able to himself, and with that' object in view it is clear from his own evidence that the question of whether the claimants were qualified, or whether they signed to claims, or whether the claims were duly attested, were matters of complete indifference to him so long m tho supreme object was gained. " MrfLundon has himself permitted a native in his presence to sign the names of 20 absent persons to the electoral claims, and has caused the forms so prepared to be taken away to a distance to be signed by another person as attesting witness. Very many of the claims preferred were certainly never signed by the persons purporting to have signed them, and false attestation has been the rule and not the exception. Instances in print are then given, and the report proceeds : " Passing now from the circumstances npon which it would be useless to dwell, I regret to have to say that I consider the official conduct of the late Registration Officer, Mr Williams, open to grave censure. Many of the disclosures elictod by this enquiry, and which might have justified objections, were quito unknown to Mr Williams, and were not indicated in his formal objections. His reasons, 1 think, must be sought elsewhere. The wholesale objections made by htm in his official capacity, and which oertaiuly include names whioh ought not to have been objected to, were made, as it seems to me, on very inadequate information. Mr Williams is an excellent Maori scholar, he has resided in his district for more than 40 years, yet his personal knowledge, on which his objections were founded, only extended to 3*i names out of the total number objected to. In all other cases he seems to nave relied almost absolutely on general statements by the Resident Magistrates of* Hokianga and Mongonni respectively, that the claimants were not entitled to a vote. Mr Williams in his evidence repeatedly and deliber* ately says, in speaking of his objections, " I objected to all names I had a doubt upon." This is by no means my conception of theduty of a Registration Officer in this respect. Where he objects, he ought, I think, to have no doubt at all, for it must be remembered that the burden of proof lies on the person objected to, who moreover, has no claim for costs against the Registration Officer, in case he establishes his right to the franchise. Practically, in these cases, tho claimants do not appear, and the objection, therefore, if wrongfnllj made, amounts to dUfranohuement. The extreme views which Mr Williams took of his duty as Registration Officer must, I think, have grown up out of the political situation which I have already described. Moreover, there is no doubt that many names were left on the roll of persons whose qualifications were similar to those objected to, and it happens that the persons so left on the roll resided for tho most part in districts over which the influence of Mr Williams's family might be supposed to extend. It is not surprising, therefore, that a suspicion of bias should be excited in the minds of the political opponents of Mr Williams's family. I have already intimated that the information on which Mr Williams' founded his objection was derived in great part from Mr Yon Stnrmer, the R.M. of Hokianga, and Mr White, the late R.M. of Mong-onqi. In the case qf Mr Yon Stunner, the memo, containing tho information was not produced, but Mr White's memo, was read in evidence by Mr Williams. I have no hesitation in saying that it was not a memo oil whioh any registration officer ought to have relied, as it onritained the strongest internal evidence that it was the production of a partisan ; yet Mr Williams seems to have relied on it with more implicit faith than the writer expected or ever desired. I can only account for such conduct on the part of a gentleman whose character for honor and integrity stads high by supposing that, nneonseionsly to himself, he had suffered his judgment to become warped, and his official acts influenced by personal or political antipathy to his brother's opponent, Mr Lundon. That being my deliberate opinion, it is, I think, a matter for great regret, that when Mr Williams found his feelings enlisted in local political questions he did not rotiro from a position where his honor might not reasonably be called in question. I have already alluded to the extraordinary ruling given by Mr Lawlor on the 6th of Jnnelast, on the technical point raised byMrTole. Tfcat decision seems to me to have been almost childish, tat ite

effect wu to place on the electoral roll all of the names objected to bj the IWutration Officer, including the names of absent and obviously disqualified persons. Mr Lawlor was probablj impressed by the foot that Mr Tole, a gentleman of the legal profession, and a member of tho Honse of Reprosentatiros, seriously raised tlio point, but he ousht to have -Hint if that Mr Tule might think himself at liberty to urge a point as an advocate, which as a judge he would deride. Tim decision war undoubtedly unsound, and was unfortunate in its effects directly and indirectly. Taken in connection with other circumstances it gave an appearance of probability to the suspicion thai the Government bad become a party to a design of placing Maoris on the roll without that proper examination into the merita of the claims provided for by law. Other circumstances were not wantlag to strengthen th« suspicions. Mr Williams, the Registration Officer, had been practically dismissed the rery day before the sitting of the Revision Court, and Oapt. Baker, who was appointed the same day to the vacant office, was a gentleman utterly incompetent to perform the duties. To use his own expression, he was totally unacquainted with the office, and in my opinion quite incapable of learning them. These things, which hare been placed prominently before the public on many occasions, did look as if the Government designed to promote the improper packing of the roll, and of barking an enquiry which nii*ht pane it ; but beyond the f«cts previously well-known, nothing has come out in this enquiry to lend rapport to the suspicion, and I think it an examination of the drcuraslanees shews its utter improbability. Whether it was right or wrong for the Registration Offioer to make his objections, the fact remained that they had been made. The impropriety, so far as it existed, had been accomplished, the burden of proof being on the claimanU who had been objected, no actire duty remained for the Registration Officer to perform. It cannot be thought that the Gorernment bettered that an enqniry before the Revision Court would ba burked, except it be first assumed that the Government had knowledge that Mr Lawlor, the Revision Officer, and an offioer of the Supreme Court, would deliver a judgment grotesqne in its absurdity. lam not prepared for so violent an assumption, and therefore, while the sudden dismissal of Mr Williams at so short a period prior to the sitting of tho Revision Court, was no doubt most inconvenient and objectionable. I think the gentleman must be acquitted of the depth of iniquity which has been' imputed to him in reference to the mode in wtich petU tion* to the House were got up. I think, then, that Mr John Lundon has for years past deliberately endeavored to place persons on the electoral roll for the Mongonui and Bay of Islands district, with the view of rendering it more favorable to himself, and without caring whother such persons were qualified or not It is my opinion that of the 373 claims which he caused to bo preferred in 1878, four-fifths had no legal qualification, and that of the remaining fifth many were vicious. I think that both of Mr Lawlor's celebrated decisiana were unsound in law, and that his capacity is not equal to the performance of the duties of Revising Officer in a district where difficult questions may arise. I think that Mr Biker the new Registration Officer, at Russell, is altogether unfit for that position, I think that the conduct of tho Government in removing Mr Williams from the position of Registration is Officer unfortunate. It will probably be observed that scarcely anyone canceroed seems to come out of this inquiry blameless, and tli is circumstance has occurred forcibly to my own mind. There i« perhaps little cause for surprise, for in snch a district where press criticism must be unfelt, and public opinion without existence, that arbitrary exercise of potror and immoral political manoeuvres can have no sufficient oheck.