OAMARU BY-ELECTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18899, 27 June 1923, Page 8

OAMARU BY-ELECTION.

SENSATIONAL STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER, DESTRUCTION OF CLAIM FORMS. DEPARTMENTAL REPORT. {From Ouh Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, June 26. A statement that surprised the House tonight was made by the Prime Minister in regard to the recent Oamaru election. He stated that on the 22iul of this month he had received the following memorandum from the Chief Electoral Office: —“I enclose herewith the report of the inspecting officer on the Oamaru electoral office, together with the explanation of the registrar of electors, regarding the destruction of the claim forms supporting the current main and supplementary electoral rolls. The registrar’s action is most reprehensible and cannot be excused under any circumstances. While the spirit and intention of the Legislature Act is to the effect that these claims should be kept as long as an electoral roll is in existence, there is no definite statutory provision therefor. Registrars, however, are well aware that all claim forms are to be kept intact and that no electoral papers shall be destroyed without the authority of the head office, which is only given when claims are absolutely obsolete. lam arranging for Mr Hodgkins to proceed to Oamaru forthwith and to hold a departmental inquiry into the circumstances connected with the extraordinary procedure of the registrar in destroying these claims and will report further later. I may add that I have also telegraphed for Mr Hay, who is in Auckland, and who acted as the department’s representative at Oamaru at the by-election, to come south and be present at this inquiry.—(Signed) J. Hislop.” Attached was the following report from the inspector :—“As instructed, I inspected the Oamaru electoral office on the 19th inst. I requested the registrar to produce the claims supporting the last supplementary roll for the purpose of taking the return asked for in your memorandum of the 18th inst., and was informed that these had been destroyed when the office was being cleared up after the election. The registrar did not appear to realise that this was a serious matter, and it was only after a series of questions that I elicited the fact that, they were made into a parcel and placed on top of a cabinet with parcels of obsolete forms, returned letter’s, etc., and later handed to a. carrier, who took them to the beach and burnt them. I personally searched the office, as the registrar could not say definitely that the parcel containing the claim forms had gone with the obsolete papers, but did not find any claims. _ I then wired you that the claims supporting the supplementary roll had been I then asked the registrar where the claims supporting the general roll were kept, and was informed that these wore destroyed intentionally, ns it was not considered necessary to keep them. I requested the registrar to give an explanation in writing, which, after interviewing his late assistant (Mr Edwards), he did. This is attached hereto.—(Signed.) J. J. M'Gahey.” Mr Massev also rend the statement obtained from the registrar of electors, which was as follows :

Re third supplementary roll claims for enrolment—at Air Al‘Gahey‘s request I am giving this written statement regarding the above. I requested my assistant (Air Edwards) to take the claims from the cabinet and pared them up so that no freeh claims for enrolment would be mixed up with them. This was not done immediately, as Air Edwards has been in poor health for some time, and is only now awaiting an operation. Acting on impulse I took an opportunity of clearing out all the papers and having them destroyed by a carrier who attends to this class of work. Included in the old papers were claims, etc., for the 1919 election and also for the main roll of the last general election. The latter I may have noticed, but I did not notice that the claims for the by-election wore among the others on the shelf, and in fact I was not aware until afterwards that they had been parcelled up —until Air Edwards informed mo of the fact. They had all been destroyed. My practice has always been to retain claims ter enrolment lor each election until a new roll is printed, but seemingly in this case, just because the claims were required for inspection, it was not to bo.—(Signed) A. W. Woodward, Registrar of Electors.”

Air Alassey added that there wore some 1100 claims for enrolment, and everyone knew that most of them came from outside the electorate. There was the four weeks provision which enabled such claims to be made, but at the first chance he got ho would cut that out.

Voices: “Hoar, hear”; and ‘‘let us cut it out.”

Mr Massey: It does not matter in the case of a general election because everyone then is fighting for himself, but at a byeleotion there is nothing to prevent a man who has boon four weeks in the electorate from getting his name on the roll, but he must prove his domicile in the electorate where he intends to be registered. That was not done in hundreds of cases. People came who were mostly registered in Dunedin, North Otago, and South Canterbury, and got their names on the roll. How they did it he did not know, but just nt present it looked very ugly and suspicious. He would leave it at that. This thing bad to be cleared up, and those responsible for the wrong doing, if there was any, must take the consequences.