The New-Zealander. Auckland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 1857 THE STATE OF THE ELECTORAL ROLL.

New Zealander, Volume 13, Issue 1121, 14 January 1857, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Auckland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 1857 THE STATE OF THE ELECTORAL ROLL.

Be just ami icar not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at, be thy Country’s, Thv Gon’s, and Truth’s.

It has long- been known that the machinery for the preparation of the Electoral Roll of this Province is very defective —and that lor its re* vision and correction, there is almost absolutely none. The plan hitherto followed appears to have been, for the General Government to direct the Returning Officer to take charge of the preparation, —and for that officer to delegate his task to some second and unofficial party ; while both the Government and its official nominee have equally neglected to take the slighest security for the due performance of so important a duty. The inevitable consequence of such a singular exemplification of the doctrine of “ the right of folks to do just as they please,” may easily be imagined: rather, no imagination is required about the matter, —for the result has long been patent to the most casual observer. of fictitious votes have been foisted into the roll—dead men and absentees have not been struck off, while the Resident Magistrate and the one or two unpaid justices who have assumed to revise the roll, have evinced so little knowledge of the actual personnel of the constituency, that they have as often, if not oftever, struck off good votes as bad—nay, frequently, notoriously bad votes have been retained in seeming if not positive preference to the names of old aud well-known settlers.

Without stopping to inquire whether this Province is any worse oii in this respect than the rest of the Colony, it is a satisfaction to us to know that the immediate and growing nature of the evil was first pointed out by members of that party in which the Government of this Province is now vested ; and that on more than one occasion, and in more than one way, they have endeavoured to rectify in some degree the errors of the Electoral Roll. Just now, having been beaten and placed in a minority, the opposite party (who have been the chief offenders in swelling and polling the main portion of the fictitious votes) are very virtuously indignant at the existence of a state of things they have been chiefly instrumental in bringing about, —denouncing the present Electoral Roll both as being full of errors, and as exaggerating the number of electors in the Province. This is no new device in political warfare, particularly when politics are made a profession for the advancement of private ends rather than the public good. But though it is a mere piece of affectation on the part of these seeming election-purists, the fact remains as stated more than once by Mr. Merrlmau in the House of Representatives, and by other members of the Constitutional party in the Provincial Council, that the Electoral Roll stands greatly in need of a thorough scrutiny, of systematic preparation by efficient and responsible parties, and of an annual revision by some competent and impartial person. This we might most readily admit even upon the low ground of party expediency and desirability. We do not believe that the actual number of the constituency would be much, if at all, diminished by such expurgation, —while we do believe that the ranks of the Constitutional electors would be considerably augmented by the adoption of the very simple steps alone necessary for this purpose. But we advocate this reform on far higher grounds than those of mere party expediency, or of a plausible consistency with a cry raised when in a minority—on those of equity and of a regard for the political and moral reputation of the Province. Where there is little or no check against the falsification of the Electoral Roll, it is a very easy tiling for a tew active electioneered to “stuff’the Roll with “men who are not and it is not much more difficult, if all that is said he true, to revive the dead, bring hack electors from Australia and from home faster than .Ariel girdled the globe, and convert beardless hoys into hirsute bushmeu ; all of whom shall do duty as well as the best known settlers. This being open to one party, has a natural tendency to provoke retaliation among warm members of an opposite party who think “ ail is fair in love and war” ; and tlie original inventors and practised of this - -K : • ' '■* *■;" tioneering in this Province do declare that tiieir had example has been followed. B tills be really the fact, the copyists —as is generally the case with plagiarists —have utterly failed in reaching the perfection attained by their exemplars. However the fact may he, and insincere as we believe many of the loudest declaimed on the subject to he, wo are not sorry that the question has been mooted in the Provincial Council, and out of doors by other parties in whose sincerity we can place some confidence. The resolutions passed the other evening at the public meeting over which Mr. Archibald Clark presided, will strengthen the Provincial Gov-

TTTthesteps they were preparing to e T m to bring the subject under the notice of rJnerol Government; and we can see no the o C r»l.vthe revision should n-‘ take place early‘late, by some a«en v devised and 8t i d the Provincial Government, or why enacted y Q overnmo nt should not he the pres , r a o-eneral measure for introduction m fCvt Assembly providing for the annual tlie . .“ u ‘ of t l ie Electoral Roll throughout the C °Xbnavliinerv required for sm-li revision „il beR-aliv wry simple. \ e have now not ,V 1 ,v l v---m-two barristers m the Province Bai” of practising Counsel ; and out of b . llt one o-eiitleman could he selected, who make a iournev through the Province, Wdine'in eaeh dlstriet a lievisiiu; Court, at i • hj ’the Resident Magistrates for each such Twit should be required to attend tor the d ' L„f aiding the Revising Barrister with P ur .l )( r a l-nowled"e. Due notice should be these Courts would be S.T- proper forms of claim and objection I nil 1 be printed and forwarded to each resillnt magistrate, for distribution to parties apI! for them ; a day should ho I,sod tor nLivim? these chums and objections ; and when that time has expired lists of the Ites claimed and objected to should be pubexhibited at every ehurel. and chapel and court-house in the Province, so that every settle,. may have an opportunity of seeing, before the dav of revision, whether Ins elannhas been insert or whether the objection he has made t „ some improper vote has been duly hied . m \ in the event of any omission, and of the claimant or objector being able to prove that his paper was duly delivered at the proper nhee to the proper party, he should lime the further power granted of applying tor the mtificition of such mistake. The eidorcemeiit of a small fee-say of one shilling in each C , lS€ for the registration of chums and objections, would go far towards defraying the expense of extra printing, and would also act as a check against the putting mot frivolous claims and objections. The adoption of such a plan —(m the workin,, out of which, as is the case at home, the agents or more active members of the several political parties in the Province would render material assistance) —would soon have the effect of purifying the Electoral Roll from its existin'- 1 defects, 1 and still better, it would take a wav from defeated political tricksters the p<>vyer of casting undeserved slurs upon the reputation of the constituency of the Province as a whole.