PARSIMONIOUS CANDIDATES PROTECTION BILL.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 58, 22 October 1881, Page 88

PARSIMONIOUS CANDIDATES PROTECTION BILL.

(To he introduced into next Session of Parliament by Dr Wallis). We have been favoured with an early copy of the above named important measure, which will be introduced at the earliest opportunity after the assembling of Parliament. It is as follows : — " Whereas the newspapers of this country, in common with other worthless members of society, are in the habit of preying upon gentlemen who are candidates for Parliament, and whereas it is desirable that these gentlemen should be protected by law, therefore it is enacted etc. : — ■ "1. This Act to be called 'The Parsimonious Candidates' Protection Act, 1882.' "2. Interpretation Clause. — The word 'newspaper ' in this Act shall mean and include every rapacious, greedy, lying, insulting, and scurrilous rag, sheet, or parchment published in the colony of New Zealand. The term ' candidate ' shall mean and include only gentlemen of ample means and benevolent disposition who require pretection, in their capacity as candidates, from unjust and oppressive charges. "3. Any newspaper proprietor or his servant

who shall charge or attempt to charge, extort, ■wheedle or coax money in return for printing election addresses, notices of meetings, or other advertisements for candidates, shall be held guilty of a misdemeanour, punishable by being compelled to listen to the speeches delivered by Dr Wallis, Dick Seddon, and other Parliamentary bores, for a period of one session, and the proprietor shall publish the said speeches in full in the said newspaper free of charge, provided that in the ev.ent of the offender becoming a hopeless lunatic the punishment may be remitted. " 4. All printers, under pain of the aforesaid penalties, shall be obliged to print circulars, handbills, and other election matter, free of charge, for all candidates ; and proprietors of halls and other buildings shall also provide such free of charge to candidates, in such time and way as said candidate may require, for public addresses, committee rooms, or otherwise. " 5. Any voter, free and independent, or otherwise, who shall invite a candidate to take a drink [ (long or short) with the implication that the candidate should pay for such drink, shall on conviction thereof be compelled to drink cold water for a period of three months, to listen to tee-total lectures, and to read 'Hansard' and no other work. " 6. Any elector who shall sell any article, or execute work of any kind whatever, to a candidate during a pending Parliamentary election, in the hope that the said candidate will pay him on an unusually liberal scale ; and any elector who oifers his daughters for kisses from a candidate, in the expectation that the said candidate will slip a sovereign into each of their mouths, shall be deemed guilty of inciting to embracery, and be subject to the penalties provided for that offence. " 7. All newspapers shall be bound to insert, free of charge, all telegrams, letters, puffs, reports, or otherwise, sent them by any candidate, each item in larger type than the other, and so placed that everyone may see them ; or so failing to do, the penalties named in Clause 3. shall be imposed."