THE ELECTION LAW

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1681, 3 November 1925, Page 5

THE ELECTION LAW

BREACHES ALLEGED. CLAIM FOR £SOOO DAMAGES. (By Telegraph. Press Association.)" AUCKLAND, Monday. To-day two informations were sworn under the Legislature Act, one against Henry Hastings .Seabrook, president of the Rokill branch of the Protestant Political Association. One Charge sets out:— "That on or about the 30th day or October, 1925, in the Roskill electorate, Auckland, the defendant, between the issue of the writ and the close of the poll, did issue a circular headed, "HallSkelton and the Roskill Electors,' and did publish, expose, or cause to be published or exposed, the printed document aforesaid, containing defamatory statements, being grossly false and untrue, calculated to influence the votes of electors, and concerning thecandidate Alfred Hall-Skelton, in' breach of the Legislature Act, 1908." A similar information was laid against the same party for alleged publishing of another document allegedlybearing his signature a president o£ the Roskill branch of the Protestant Political Association. .

The penalty set out under the section of the Act for an offence of the nature alleged is a fine of £SO, or three months' imprisonment. A writ is being issued for £SOOO damages in connection with the alleged defamatory statements contained in. the subject matter of the circular referred, to, against both the signatories, and the printers of the said document.