NOMINATION PAPER REDUCED TOO LATE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18469, 22 May 1928, Page 4

NOMINATION PAPER REDUCED TOO LATE

(Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON, May 22. An interesting technical point is involved in a nomination for one of the vacancies on the Dairy Produce Board, which reached the returning officer yesterday, three hours after the time fixed for the closing pf nominations at his office. Ample notification is always given of the annual statutory vacancies on the board, and plenty of time is then allowed for nominations to be tendered, but, as occurs not infrequently in electoral nominations, in the case of Mr Booker, of Whitford, a candidate against the chairman of the board (Mr Grounds), there was apparently a last-minute rush in forwarding the official nomination paper to Wellington. By noon yesterday, the time declared for the closing of nominations, the -returning officer, an official of the Agricultural Department, had received four nominations, but that of Mr Booker had not come to hand. A registered letter containing the paper was received by the returning officer at 3 p.m. It had been addressed, not to the returning officer as required in the notices inviting nominations, but simply “Dairy Control Board Election, Wellington.” Postal officials, on receipt of the registered letter yesterday morning, placed in the post office box of the Control Board the usual notification intimating the arrival of a registered letter. It was not until later it was discovered that the letter should, have been addressed to the returning officer in the Department of Agriculture. The letter was re-directed, and it is understood it is not being accepted.