LOCAL OPTION INQUIRY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5805, 24 January 1906, Page 5

LOCAL OPTION INQUIRY.

THK IXVKKVAHUILL POLL, gauss association. IXVKIK'ARCiILL. January 23. The licumii; of the pel it ion to invalidate the loc.il option poll ,u Invercargill begin to-day. Messrs Husking, Sims, Jja 11. ami Mis. Beniamin appear for tho petitioners, ami Minos Adamr nml MnvAlisUr for the respondents. .Tile sitting WHS ecvnpled almost entirely with the opening address of 'Mr Ho-ddng, leading counsel for petitioners. The principal point raised hy him teas that certain votes allowed ut (ho recount, were informal ns far as they related to any particular nropcaal. hut. that, being legally votes rcx-oHed to; v::‘er.s. they should he counted into the tet.i! number of vote; molded. He air-) raised the point that absent voters, except seamen, were not entitled to record the-r votes on the licensing issue. Counsel relied mainly on the. derision of Dr McArthur. S.M.. in the Newtown case. f-'orne evidenre was liken. A xerntipeer stall'd that a deputy-ridinning ofT’cev refm-ed him votiii" naoers. home rendiar manipnhition of papers was di-do-ed. One voter wrote “for the rclray ” on his paper in addition to linking the erasures. One verv <leaf man was refused a voting thonjdi on <he rail and aide to read e. writ ten one-Hon if pm to him. The ineptiry is likely to'List three or four days.