The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHING EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1818.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1491, 2 December 1881, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHING EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1818.

In the forthcoming elections the various important alterations in the electoral law will have to undergo the test of practical working, and whatever is defective in them will soon be made apparent. Since the constituencies were last called upon to elect a new Parliament, the franchise has undergone very considerable modification. Manhood suffrage has taken the place of a property and household qualification, male adults of every class have become qualified under the residential vote, the means of registering have been simplified, and the time extended. That these changes have n©t produced such large additions to the rolls as might have been anticipated, is due, no doubt, to the fact that large accumulations of the dead or removed have been swept ofl' the the rolls in the revisal, and the rolls represent more closely the actual voting power. One of the first eflects of this change should be a closer approximation of the votes actually recorded to the names on the roll. In this district we may reasonably hope for 1,200 votes to be recorded out of the total number of 1,500 odd. The hours of polling are also extended by the Regulation of Elections Act till six o'clock at night. A still more momentous alteration is that contained in the provision for holding all the elections on one day. This would tend, one may suppose, to strike at the power of any party organisation intended to exert control over all the contests, because it would be impossible without an almost unlimited number of workers to carry on the war at every point with effect. In past election campaigns it has been usual to concentrate all power on each contest as it arose, giving the whole weight of the party organisation to it. That course now will be practi.callf out of the question. Coming to the operation of the Practices Prevention Act, tho law, rigidly adhered to, would f put an entirely altered face on the

" old time" election customs. No cabs, no beer or refreshments, no paid touts and canvassers. But wo haw very little doubt that the strict lot .or of the Act will be evaded. The>e is nothing to prevent a voter from driving to the poll in his private conveyance, or in taking friends with him, and we shall not be surprised to see considerable rivalry among the committees in bringing their individual resources to aid the common object. In discussing the probabilities of the effectual working of the Act, the Auckland Star expresses the opinion which is shared by others that it will be a most satisfactory surprise should anticipations of any general endeavour to avoid the spirit of the law be falsified. It states " that the new legislation tends to elicit a true expressisn of the will of the people. It provides for the quiet, unostentatious record of au elector's judgment in the choice of his representative in Parliament. It secures that end, and in doing so represses, as much as penalties can repress, any practices tending to sway the vote unduly or corruptly. 1 1 is to the interests of the electors, therefore, that the law should be observed, and candidates will in the long run also find themselves gainers rather than losers by the change. The new legislation under which the elections are to be held, though based upon laws in other colonies, is to a certain extent experimental, and its results will be watched with much curiosity. To get over all the bustle and worry of polling in or.c day will be a relief, but the concentrated excitement, the hopes and fears of that eventful nine hours, who shall adequately describe," We hope that the good to be ultimately derived by this district will be in proportion to the excitement and enthusiasm aroused in the present contest.