BARRED BY STATUTE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 19, 20 April 1918, Page 5

BARRED BY STATUTE.

MR WEBB NOT ELIGIBLE. FOR REMOMINATION FOR GREY. It seems that the statement made on Wednesday by Mr J. McCombs ■.Labor member for Lyttelton) time there was nothing in the Legislature Act to prevent the renomination of. Mr P. C. Webb for the Grey seat isnot in accordance with fact. An old Parliamentary band called the attention of a New Zealand “Times” re-; presentative yesterday to section '3Sf of the Legislature Act, which reads* as follows:

AH. (1) An alien or person of unsound mind, or a person convicted of an offence punishable by death m. by imprisonment for one year or up* wards within any part of His Majesty’s Dominions, or convicted in New Zealand as a public defaulter, or under the Police Offences Act, 1908, a.s an idle and disorderly person, or as a rogue and vagabond, unless such person has received a free pardon, ort has undergone the sentence or punishment to which lie was adjudged for such offence, shall not be entitled to be registered.

“2) The Registrar of the Supreme Court, or Clerk of the Court, at which any person is convicted as l aforesaid shall, not later than the fifth day ot the month next succeeding the conviction, forward to the Registrar of the district in which l the offender was residing a statement? showing the name, place of abode, and occupation or description of such offender, and the offence of which he was convicted. ■■3) The name of every person disqualified as aforesaid shall be erased from every electoral roll.” “Since,” said the old Parliamentary band, “no one but an elector can stand for Parliament, it follows that a person whose name has been ‘erased from every electoral roll’ is not entitled to be a candidate. Mr Webb, therefore, will not be eligible tn stand .for Grey at the forthcoming by-election.” The. House of Representatives was: adjourned till 2.30 p.m. on Monday next, April 22nd, and it is expected that the proclamation formally proroguing Parliament will be gazetted on or before that date. The Greyi seat, therefore, automatically becomes vacant. Mr P. C. Webb being barred from? standing, Mr Robert Semple is held in Labour circles to be perhaps the likeliest- candidate for Grey.