Untitled

New Zealand Mail, Issue 422, 13 March 1880, Page 24

The Act of last session, intituled, " The Registration of Electors Act, 1879," makes a complete change in the method of registering the qualifications of electors, and in lieu of restricting the period for sending in claims to vote for members of the House of Representatives to the months of January, February, and March in every year, persons qualified to vote may register their names at any time. Likewise those who wish to enter objections under the Act may also do so whenever occasion arises. Under the old Act objections were only receivable during the month of April, these were heard on certain specified days, and if not then sustained, the roll was confirmed by the Revising Officer for each district, printed, and remained in effect, with all errors of omission and commission, until the roll for the next year came in force —thus encouraging the temptation to record dual and dead men's votes whenever an election occurred, and also allowing many persons to vote whose qualification had ceased. Under the new Act the Registrar will be permitted to amend the roll from day to day, clause 6 prescribing that "it shall be the duty of every Registrar to make the rolls as complete as possible, and with that object from time to time to place thereon, or add thereto, the name of every person of whose qualification as an elector he is satisfied, and it shall further be his duty to assure himself of the right of every man to have his name retained upon the roll." Persons claiming enrolment must do so on a special form set forth in the schedule to the Act, such claim, and the accompanying declaration to be either delivered personally to the Registrar, or sent to him per post. The essential qualification is that the applicant shall have resided within the colony of New Zealand for twelve months, and within the district of which he claims to be an elector six months, immediately preceding the date of the application. An elector may also have his name removed from one roll and

transferred to another in any case where he removes from an electoral district and takes up his residence elsewhere ; but it is stipulated that he must reside one month in the district to which he has removed before he makes application for transfer of his name from one roll to another. Having made declaration to that effect before a Justice of the Peace, and delivered such credential to _ the Registrar, that official will grant him a certificate, which will authorise the Registrar of the district to which the applicant has removed to insert his name upon the electoral roll of such district. A very necessary restriction is, however, made against any name being inserted on any roll after the issue of a writ for the election of a member of the House of Representatives for the district to which such roll refers, until after the return of the writ. This will prevent the sudden crowding of a roll with names just at the time when votes have a special value. Heretofore- copies of the electoral rolls for each district have been printed once a year, and the same offered to the public at about five shillings each, and the consequences have been that no one would buy who could possibly get desired information by any other means, and the Government Waste Paper Department has been blocked with tons weight of useless printed matter. Under the new Act copies of rolls are to be open for inspection at certain advertised places in each district, for four hours on at least two days in every week. Copies or extracts therefrom may be obtained on payment of one shilling for every folio, and at the expiration of four months after the first roll of any district is formed, the same shall be printed and sold to the public at the price of one shilling per copy for every roll not exceeding one thousand words, and for one shilling and sixpence when the list exceeds that number. Periodical reprints of rolls will be made whenever not less than one hundred names are added, and supplementary rolls must be printed immediately previous to a general election. The removal of a name from a roll is effected by a line in red ink drawn through the same, and a note made opposite thereto, stating the ground of removal, initialled by the Registrar. Objections to the name of any person in any electoral district may be made by the Registrar of the district, or some elector whose name is on such roll, and if the person objected to does not, within fifteen days after service of notice, cause his name to be removed, the objector may apply to a Resident Magistrate or Justice of the Peace to adjudicate ; but an objector, other than the Registrar, must deposit one pound as security for any costs that may be awarded at the discretion of the Court.