The Taranaki Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1900. THE LICENSING POLL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9942, 19 January 1900, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1900. THE LICENSING POLL.

The decision of Major Keddell, S.M. at Oamaru, that the late licensing poll there which carried "Reduction" by two votes, ia null and void because the Returning Officer did not personally count tho votes, shows that tho present Act is, liko so many others, faulty and that the proverbial coach and four can bo driven through it. The New Zealand Times thus comments on tho case — This lesult was not satisfactory to the hotelkeepers, who instituted legal proceedings for tho purpose of having the roll declared void. The grounds of their plea were various, but one has been shown to be valid; and if tho voting and the counting, ot Iho votes in other electorates were subjected to tho same ordeal, it is safe to say that most of the local option polls would be declared void. The law inquires that the i chiming officer shall personally count the votes, rejecting the informal panels, and this thn returning officer at Oamaiu confessed hf had not; done. He had followed the course of accepting the counts of tho deputy-roturninw officers at the various polling booths, as is customary in computing tho returns of the voting for members ot Parliament. This is where tho returning officer erred. The Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act of 1893 permitted tins method to be adopted, but in 1895 the law waa amended. Tho method of taking the poll was so altered as to substitute tho provisions of tho Eleotoral Act of 1893, with tho prowso mentioned in clause 8 of tho Alcoholic Liquors S.ilo Control Act Amendment Act, which states that "tho returning officer shall count the votes, and reject all tho informal votes, and shall ascertain and determine the lesult of the lionising poll" m the manner provided. This obviously entails a personal supervision ot tho polling not contemplated by the provisions of the TCectoi.il Act of IPM, which governs the election of members of Parliament. Air llebei Newton, tho .vdvooato foi the licensed MctiidUcis in the Ouinaiu case, demonstrated to the Magistrate a further distinction. In the election ot a member ior Parliament the returning officer can appoint deputies to assist him m counting the votes at tho various booths, but ,n tho matter of the local option poll ho is restricted to the appointment of a deputy and poll clerks "for the solo puipose of attending to tho business of taking the licensing poll." The law was altered, it may be remembeied, at the instance of the prohibitionists, who declared that the poll clerks were prejudiced against them, and had in places manipulated the voting jjapers. Of course tho accusation was absurd, but tha law was altered in deference to their wish, and a failuro to act upon it has boon sufficient in this caso to upset all their efforts to obtain reduction. As thoro is no appeal from the Magistrate's decision in such cases, and as the local option poll, wherever roduction has been curried, may t>o upset in the same way, tho difcovery of this defect in the law will doubtless lead to legal proceedings being taken in Biucc and Kaiapoi districts, and even in Clutha itself, with h tiow to securing n, similar result as has been atlainod in Oamaru.