ELECTION PETITION

Southland Times, Issue 18968, 15 June 1923, Page 7

ELECTION PETITION

SOUTH INVERCARGILL MAYORALTY mr McChesney declared elected. The Magistrate, Mr G. Cruickshank, yesterday gave his decision in the election petition lodged against the return of Mr J. Mitchell as Major of the South Invercargill Borough at the election held on April 26. Each of the candidates for the Mayoralty, Mr J. Mitchell and Mr W. McChesney, secured an equal number of votes. Lots were drawn, Mr Mitchell being declared the winner. In the course of his judgment, the Magistrate states: Six electors being dissatisfied with the result petitioned this Court to have Mr McChesney declared elected upon the grounds that certain electors had not the necessary qualifications. To decide this it was necessary to scrutinise the local body law dealing with the matter. In every borough there are four different kinds of voting qualification:—(l) Freeholders; (2) occupiers of paying rates; (3) residents for the past three months; (4) tenants paying £lO a year rent. In every case the wife has also the qualification of her husband, the husband of his wife. None of the persons whose votes were objected to were freeholders, but were entered on the list as ratepayers. The “freehold” and “rating” qualifications are derived exclusively from the valuation roll. The “residential” and “occupiers” qualifications may be acquired apart from and independently of the valuation roll. No person can, therefore, possess a freehold or rating qualification whose name is not lawfully placed on the valuation roll. What persons, then are lawfully entitled to have their names placed on the valuation roll? The answer is to be found in section 6 of the Valuation of Land Act 1908. That section provides that the valuation roll shall set forth in respect of each property inter alia the following particulars:— (a) The name of the owner of the land. (b) The name of the occupier of the land, within the meaning of the Rating Act 1908. “Occupier” in the Rating Act means the person by whom or on whose behalf any rateable property is actually occupied if such person is in occupation by virtue of a tenancy which is far not less than six months certain. The position is therefore that no person who is not the owner of the land in question or who is not the occupier of it within the meaning of the Rating Act is liable or entitled to have his name appear on the valuation roll. No person, therefore, whose name cannot be placed on the valuation roll can be an elector by the virtue of the freehold or rating qualifications.

In view of the foregoing, it follows that the authority conferred on the clerk by sub-section (3) of section 6 of the M. C. Act is ex-necessitate limited to persons who to the clerk’s knowledge possess a residential or an occupier’s qualification. Except for changes of “ownership” or “occupancy” notified under section 63 of the Rating Act, the valuation roll of every local authority must be framed on and compiled from the District Valuation Roll prepared by the Valuer-General under the Valuation of Land Act, 1908. See sections 26 and 27 of this Act. Paragraph (a) of section 27 expressly provides that it shall not be lawful for any local authority without the consent of the Valuer-General to make any alteration in such roll except as to changes of ownership or occupancy of which notice has been received by the local authority under section 63 of the Rating Act, 1908. A payer of rates is not necessarily a “ratepayer.” “Ratepayer” means a person whose name appears for the time being in the “occupier’s” column of the rate-book. See section 2 M. C. Act. In order to find out how a person’s name gets into the “occupier’s” column of the rate-book see section 49 of the Rating Act. Sub-section (2) of that section provides that the names and other particulars as to the occupiers and owners, and property, and the rateable values, etc., shall be taken from the valuation roll. Sub-section (3) provides that all alterations lawfully made in the valuation roll shall be transcribed into the rate-book, etc. A mere understanding, therefore, to pay the rates on a particular property has no legal effect in the way of making the person giving the undertaking a “ratepayer.” The status of “ratepayer” can only be created by strict compliance with the provisions of the Valuation of Land Act and the Rating Act. It has been suggested that a borough has its own valuation roll. See definition of “Valuation List” and “Valuation Roll” in section 2 of M. C. Act, 1920. A borough has its own valuation roll prepared by itself, only in the case where the system of rating in force is rating on the annual value. ’The words in the definition “made under the provisions of the Rating Act, 1908,” can only have reference to the case of the valuation list or valuation roll of a borough in which rating on the annual value is in force. In such a case to the valuation list and valuation roll are made by the local authority itself under the provisions of the Rating Act. See section 6 et seq. In a borough in which the system of rating on the capital value or on the unimproved value is in force the valuation roll supplied by the Valuer-Gen-eral under the Valuation of Land Act. is to be the valuation roll for the district. See section 5 of the Rating Act and section 26 of the Valuation of Land Act.

I have examined the 9 informal votes and I have allowed two for McChesney and one for Mitchell.

I therefore decide that the prayer of the petitioners be granted. I declare that William McChesney was duly elected. The deposit is to be returned, as Mr Mitchell is in no way to blame for the wrongful enrolment, he cannot be ordered to pay any costs. All parties must pay their own costs. Mr William Macalister appeared for the petitioners, Mr Eustace Russell for Mr Mitchell and Mr W, Tait for the Town Clerk, Mr Dyson.