BREACH OF ELECTORAL ACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13845, 3 September 1908, Page 7

BREACH OF ELECTORAL ACT.

... CANVASSER FINED. A case, which should act as a warning' to electoral canvassers and others, en-, |;;> gaged the attention of Mr. C.'C Kettle, S.M., in the Polite Court yesterday, when a middle-aged man named John William Mai-kay, a resident of Grey Lynn, was charged with . committing a breach of the Electoral Act, 1902, in that "he signed his name as witness to the signature of William Albert Sims upon. a claim for • enrolment for the electoral .district of Grey Lynn, without having seen'such signature written, or without having ■ heard the person signing declare the said ;■ signature to be his own, and signed of .hi.; own proper name." -'■ ■ Mr. Selwyn Mavis, who represented the i ' 'prosecution, explained that the information was laid under sub-section 3 of the ¥ r-■ Act. "It:is an ordinary breach," remarked Mr. Mays," and I expect that we ,; shall have a crop of them within the next - three months." Mr. Kettle said that he would like to hear Sims' evidence, and the latter, a joiner, employed at the Waitemata Sawmills, stated that he had signed his name to the document and asked his wife to give it to the defendant lor signature when he called. This she did, and Mac- "• / ' kny attached his name to it. The defendant, who explained that he was a ship's steward, and was engaged *'* bv 'a political body to canvass the electorate, stated that he acted in good faith, and committed the breach unwittingly. if His Worship said it was very neces--1 sary that the Act should be complied with, otherwise the rolls would be !' "stuffed." 4. substantial deterrent P must be imposed, and one which he hoped would be a lesson, to other people. A fine of £5, and 30s costs, wart then inflicted, His Worship intimating that nnv others who came before him, and were convicted, would take the risk of being fined the maximum penalty, viz., £50.