ELECTION PETITION INVESTIGATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6330, 2 March 1882, Page 5

ELECTION PETITION INVESTIGATION.

[BY TELEORAI'iI. —rRKSS ASSOCIATION".I Ixvexcargill, Wednesday. A sitting of the Election Petition Court was opened at Riverton to-day for the purpose of adjudicating upon the petition of Henry Hirst acainst the return of Theophilus Daniel, who was declared clected by a majority of one. The petition set forth that after the poll, the poll clerks compared with one another the certified copies o the rolls on which the fact of any person havin" received a voting paper had been marked by the Returning Officer or any deputy, and that in such a comparison it appeared that, in two instances, the same person had received a voting paper at two or more places, but instead of opening the packages of voting papers used at the several polling places at which such persons appear to have received the voting papers and selecting therefrom tho papers on which the numbers corresponding to the names of such persons appeared, and disallowing the votes appearing to have been given by means of such voting papers, the .Returning Officer allowed the votes to be counted. The names of the persons who appeared to have voted at two or more polling places were Thomas Ford and John Glynn, and the votes of J. Elliott, J. B. Hunter, J. Webb, and S. McKelvin were also held to have been illegally accepted by the Returning Officer, thus giving Mr. Daniel only an apparent and colourable majority, ill'. Hirst therefore asked to be declared the duly elected member for Wallace. The petition was heard before Judges Johnston and Williams, Mr. McDermott and with him Mr. T. A. McDonnell appeared for tho petitioner, and Mr. Stout and with him Mr. Ginn for the respondent. Mr. Wade for the Registrar of Electors, and Mr. Harvey watched the proceedings on behalf of one of the other candidates in the election. The evidence was heard at length in support of the petition, and afterwards the rebutting evidence was tendered. At 0 o'clock the Court adjourned till next day, when further evidence will be produced.