THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1894.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9400, 5 January 1894, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1894.

• ♦ -■■-. Collectively, New Zealand politicians are the most virtuous of men. Anyone looking over the various Acts passed providing for the conduct of elections and the prevention of corrupt practices, would say that the politicians in New Zealand were without sin, and that there could be no possible corruption about a New Zealand election. For of course it would be presumed that the men who passed such laws would be sure to observe them, and only put them on the statute-book to guard against ohance men who might seek to obtain access to the charmed circle. But the fact is, that our legislators make the most stringent and severe laws against every form of electoral corruption, and on the very next occasion that presents itself they set their minds to work to discover methods of evasion. In practice, they knock their;

own handiwork to pieces. They drive coaches-and-fpur, or cabs, through £cts of .Parliament which they have * professed to be anxious to make im pregnable.''; ,- : -- -'. ' Two ? petitions have been lodged against the return of members eleote d on the fateful day of November, but we have no doubt that scarcely any of the 91 elections were unimpeachable. It seems as if it were \ simply a question of whether the defeated party can'raise the money. It is more a matter of money than of proof. To attack an election means a considerable amount of responsibility. Security must be found for £200, and counsel must be engaged to conduct the case before the judges. If the petitioner loses he will suffer considerably, but if he goes to work with vigour be can scarcely fail to make good some flaw, in the employment of an agent, in something that some agent has done, in the employment of cabs, in a hundred other ways. For instance, the Act of 1881 makes any payment on account of the conveyance of electors to or from the poll an " illegal practioe." On the last election day every cab in the city was engaged. The way in which the business is generally worked is very simple, One man is appointed from the election committee to look after the cabs. He provides himself with a witness. To them comes a cabman, and saya, "I want to give my services tomorrow with ray cab to Mr. Jones." To this offer the agent of the candidate answers, You are sure you have not received any promise of payment, and that your offer is a free gift as a friend of Mr. Jones V To this an affirmative answer is returned. On the day following the election, the cabman calls and asks the friend of the candidate to take v drive up to the firebell at Grey-street. The sum of £2 10s is found on the cushion, and the businoss is concluded. That system is, however, regarded as old-fashioned, and it is said that at last election there was no concealment or subterfuge resorted to. Shortly after a late election in Auckland, a gentleman who is not usually so flush of cash, displayed a goodly roll of notes, and in answer to a remark, said it was payday, being just twenty-eight days from the election day. All payments had been delayed, in order that the time within which a petition might be presented should run out. Whether or not therefore a petition is presented, depends upon whether a candidate has been careful enough in his evasions, or has covered up his tracks; or, above all, whether the defeated candidate can find friends who will furnish the funds needful for the contest. The petitioning candidate has no need to prove that he was innocent of all illegal practices. He has no need to show that his own hands are clean. He has merely to show that the man petitioned against has, by his agent, been guilty of something which is declared an illegal practice. In Wellington, against Sir Robert Stout, it is alleged that somebody made a bet on the result of the election. In Waitemata, it is alleged that an agent of the candidate petitioned against "shouted" beer for some of the electors. If all candidates guilty of illegal practices could be punished, then no complaint could be made ; but at present the case is simply whether funds can be found to set the law in motion, This is unsatisfactory. Supposing it is found that at Wellington some agent of Sir Robert Stout's has done something which is illegal, the country may be deprived for a time of the services of a most important public man.