WAIKAIA ELECTORAL ROLL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 173, 1 June 1871, Page 7

WAIKAIA ELECTORAL ROLL.

(To tlie Editor.) Sir, — Tour last paper contains a list of very little short of 300 names of parties who are objected to being on the Waikaia Roll by Charles Rous Marten, of Martendale, near In ve reargill. With most of the people in the "Waikaia district, it has long been a matter of surprise that the General Government should appoint a Registration ami Returniug Officer for this district who resides at such a great distance from the place for which he holds the appointment, as Mr. Marten does. Is it because there are no gentlemen in the district competent to discharge the duties ? or, is it because they imagine that in Mr. Marten is to be found the very quintessence of what a model Registration Officer ought to be ? If they hold the lattex*

opinion, I can safely say that the settlers in this dislnct do not s* are it with them. Mr. Mxrteu has. hv this shameful, reckless, and unjustiliaDlo act, done his best endeavour to disfranchise the entile M>unt Benger portion of the Waikaia district, as well as a great portion of the Switzers also. In the Mount Bender district proper, including Horseshoe Bond. Moa Flat, Roxburgh, Melrose, Bengor Flat, Fourteenmile Beach, Campbells. and Pomahaka, there is scarcely a person whose name he has not objected to, either on account of those properties " not being sufficiently described for identification," or, " not being of the value required by law." I would ask how lon^ it is since Mr. Marten felt himself in a position to estimate the value of other people's property ? It can only be very recently, for those very parties he now objects to, he has allowed to remain on the roll for previous years with the very same qualifications which he now considers defective. It must be by some new system of clairvoyance only known to Mr. Marten that he is able to compute the value of buildings which he has never seen, and situated in a neighbourhood which he has not been within fifty miles of. If time and your space permitted me to do so, T could point out a deal of useful and instructive inulU'r in 2\lr. Marten's actions which other Registration Officers might do well to profit by. For instance, " thatched house, Switzers," Mr. Marten considers amply sufficient description for a claim ; whereas, " thatched house, Roxburgh," is unhesitatingly condemned as bein^ bad and insufficient in law. Again, '■ house and land, Switzers," is held to be good, but '' house and land, Roxburgh," is a very different matter. Mr. Marten objects that a vast number of claims do not describe the property " sufficiently to be identified." Even at Tapanui, where parties have been at some trouble to describe their qualification, such as "quarter-acre sections iv Burley Hill Street, with house aud shop," he hold as not bein<j sufficiently described. What description does he require? Does be wnnt each party to employ a solicitor and a surveyor in order that they may be able to furnish him with a concise and correct description and valuation of their properties? I think it is time Mr. Marten's farce was put a si op to, or I would suggest t'lat seeing he has turned public object ml,m 1 , he niiixht consistently a<M to his duties that of public informer, and g^t his name gazetted in com pan}' with G-eorge Lumbe. — I am, &c, Uxrr.

(To the Editor.) Sir, — I made application this year to have my name placed on the Electoral Roil, truly setting forth the qualification under which I claimed. You can imagine 1117 disgust when I aaw by the latest issue of your paper my name objected to by a person calling himself " C. Rous Marten, Mart endale," and the reason assigned by him is that my pvop^rty is " not of the value required by law." Now, Sir, my property is of five times the required value, and yet I am to be put to the trouble of travelling a distance of 50 miles in this inclement senron to rectify the error of Mr. Marten. Ratiier than do that, I will consent to remain disfranchised, which perhaps is the object of what I have been told is a sweeping clearance of the roll. — I am, <fee, Disfranchised. Mount Bcnger, May 27.