THE BALLOT-PAPER CONTROVERSY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12523, 16 March 1904, Page 5

THE BALLOT-PAPER CONTROVERSY.

t: the course of a letter to the Minister for ' Justice {the Hon. J. McGowan), dated Auckland, March 11, 1904, the Rev. F. W. Isitt states that his actions in regard to the ballot papers have been prompted solely by a desire to protect the people's ballot. He proceeds —'"The unused, that is, left over ballot papers from the local option poll, November, 1902, were practically mere waste paper at the , time they were applied for, and could not in any way have been used to affect the result of any poll. Yet you have repeatedly made vague references to those papers in terms that conveyed the impression thai I wanted them for some sinister purpose. Yon know, sir, that they were really asked for by the Rev. E. Walker, though my name was attached officially to the circulars that were sent out by the alliance. You are also aware that Mr. Walkers sole purpose in asking for them was to submit them to the Colonial Secretary to show that grave irregularities had grown up in the various methods that had been adopted id printing fcsllot papers. It is true that Air. •Walker's generally exact knowledge of the licensing laws failed' him on that occasion, vst the open and wholly unconcealed man- . ier in which the application was made in itself proved that it was done with a rig object." Mr. Isitt goes oil to say that ■ballot papers for the Parliamentary an., local option polls of November 25, 19M, and for the Licensing Committee of March 25, 190j, were placed it' practica.iy unlocked boxes (that is, boxes with keys attached), and, on the nights preceding the polls, were placed in the poking k°° , some under open windows; some under windows that had no fastenings, some behind imperfectly-secured doors, or doors for • which an unknown numoer of persons held • kev»; some iD rooms where more or less . public gatherings were held. He also states that similar conditions, except that keys were not attached to the oA' : existed on the following night, the papers had become enormously valuable, cause they were the actual voting papers ; of the election of that day.