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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1054, 28 June 1880, Page 2

PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, JUNE 28, 1880. The following is the substance of the clauses contained in " The Regulation of Elections Bill." It provides that the Governor may from tinio to time appoint polling places, and alter the same, but they must be within the limits of the electoral district, ov not more than a mile from its boundaries, and the Governor must be satisfied that the place to be appointed is more convenient than any other for at least 20 of the electors. No change can be made in the polling place during the interval between the issue of the writ for an election and the termination of that election. The poll is to be by ballot ; the Returning Officer must give at least 15 days notice of the election ; and the same day must be appointed in each writ for the polling, if a poll is demanded Any duly registered elector may nominate himself as a candidate for any district, by a nomination paper in the Bill, which must be sent to the Returning Officer not more than ten nor less th.m three days before the poll, and must be accompanied by a deposit of £\ 0, to be returned if the sender polls one fifth of the number of votes polled by the candidate who heads the poll, but to be forefeited if he fails to poll that number. If a candidate be nominated by at least ten electors, no deposit is required by him. Each candidate may appoint a scrutineer for each ballot box used in the booth, and the Returning Officer may, and must, if a soi'utineei' demands it, ask any voter whether he is the person who name appears on the roll as So-and-so, and if he has voted already at the present election ; the penalty for a false answer to either of these questions being a fine not exceeding .£5O. Before giving .»ny voting paper, the Returning Officer shall write upon the bottom of tfie left hand comer of the back thereof his initials and the number appearing on the roll against the name of the voter to whom he gives such paper,jaud after securing tfie comer

with gum or otherwise shall stamp thereon an official mark, and shall place a mark against the name of such elector on the roll as evidence that he has proposed to vote. A voter must be alone, when voting, and no more than six voters are allowed to be in the polling booth at the same time, and no one but the Eeturning Officer is to speak to a voter in the booth before he has given his vote. The Returning Officer has a casting vote in a case where two candidates have received an equal number of votes. When a district is represented by three members no person can vote for more than two candidates. When a second vote is tendered in the same name, the voting paper is not to be put into the ballot box, but set aside for separate custody. The Returning Officer is to open the rolls received from his deputies in the presence of such scrutineers as choose to be present, and if any person is discovered to kave received a voting paper at two or more polling places, all his votes are disallowed.

The Auctioneer's Bill, now before the Assembly, is intended to apply to the whole Colony. The Bill is the work and framing of the Hon. Mr. Dick. It is a short measure of twenty four clauses. It provides that no person shall exercise the trade or business of an auctioneer or seller by commission at any sale by auction, unless duly licensed, under a maximum penalty of £100 and three years disqualification from holding an auctioneer's license. Auctioneers licenses are to .be issued by county or borough treasurers, the fee being £40 per annum. Such licenses are not to be granted to any persons whose principal or sole place of business is not within such county or borough. Every Auctioneer's as license long as it is in force ss to authorise the holder to conduct auction sales in any part of the colony. Existing licenses are to remain in effect until their expiration by effluxion of time or forfeiture. Two or more partners in an auction business must take out separate licenses and pay full fees. Publicans are not to be competent to hold auction licenses. Uncertificated bankrupts are also disqualified. Lists of licensed auctioneers are to be I published. No licensed auctioneer is to exercise his business by artificial light after 5 p.m. from April to September or after 7 p.m. during the rest of the ' year. No music or riotous or disorderly conduct is to be permitted in a sale room under a penalty of £\O. Any person not a licensed auctioneer who has any words inscribed on or about his premises, or such having been inscribed and not thoroughly obliterated, leading to the supposition that he is an auctioneer, or pretending in any way to be such, is to be liable to a penalty of not less than £20 or more than £100. Any license improperly obtained is to be forfeited. Any licensed auctioneer selling contrary to the Act is to be liable to a £50 penalty. A treasurer improperly issuing a license is to be liable to pay the fees in proceeding against any person for acting as auctioneer without license ; the nonprocluotion of a license is to bo deemed adverse proof. Sales made by order of the Government, or the Customs,or any judicial authorities, do not come under the Act. Half-penalties may be paid to informers and the other half to the. district fund, out of which latter the expenses of administration are to be defrayed. The Government is to appoint persons to issue licenses, and may prescribe the form. Illegal sales, held prior to this Act, are not validated. The schedule repeals fifteen existing Acts on the subject.