The Waihi Daily Telegraph. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER SATURDAY DECEMBER, 16, 1905

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume V, Issue 1509, 16 December 1905, Page 2

The Waihi Daily Telegraph. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

SATURDAY DECEMBER, 16, 1905

Hore shall the frogs tho People's night-mnntai Uniwod by mfluonoo and nnbrlbod by gall; Horopatriot Trnth lio ?l<iMuaa prooopta dun Pledged to Belisrlon Libert;, ud Ltn

The rights of electors to be'provided with adequate and comfort able njeans of recording llieir votes"': at the electoral and licensing: polls were undoubtedly denied them at the polling booth at i Rotorna on the .6th inst, That this state of things is a direct negative to the directions and instructions* of the Electoral Act there can be no "doubt, tyecause fullpower to provide every thing for the .taluDg of the polls in; any city or town, no matter how largo the place, is given to the returning'officer or deputy returning officer, as the. case may be. Tho inadequate and miserable arrangements made at Rotorna simply resolved itself into a disgraceful j.debacle, resulting in' the faiftting of women, the extreme congestion of votors in 'the evidently small space provided, and tho un» necessary, delay in the declaration of ,the polld, which, when all over, totalled 700 odd votes. We question whether, from a strict electoral point of view, such a poll could bn termed absolutely fair, TII9 rights of the electors were denied them, and . the provisions of the Act were nof-carried out. The result cannot be even termed an object lesson,- because there should 'bo no such thing as an object lesson -neceasary, nor shotild its existence bo even tolerable.; There can be no doubt about the question of blame, because, as we 'haye pointed -out, the Act gives every power' necessary Mo tho returning officer ins. chief to provide an effective taking of the poll. It was undoubtedly that officer's duty to see that his deputy at Rotorna made full arrangements. The result shows a regrettablo want of foresight in the deputy himself, ami a total .failure to grasp the exigencies of the position. It has been mentioned that the fact of 'the introduction of the voting permit system caused a good deal of delay, but this also applies to every polling booth in the colony, and it is certainly no pxcus a when power is given, to a deputy io,ih#ke his own arrangements. The vote at Waihi, nearly 2500, as against RotoruuV 700 odd, was practically done by three officials, aud the result was known in what is generally accepted as record time, Tho secret iasimply ono -of good management and system,, There iB no doubt that the. j .yoting .permit system places heavy; (iijklitiqnal work upon tho shoulders of'tii'e deputy, and the taking of the licensing poll increases thegenenl ftork ; but if-a deputy allows hM. self; to be' cr ( imped by a too rkljapish intqrpretation of. the.sct/sje : hot tto least doubt that A^rigM||/

the electors were seriously affected , ai Hotorua. Ooiisideung everything, we think the authorities nt .Wellington should be acquamied with the Rotorua ■ fiasco, with a view of preventing,;,future; occurrences of a similar nature. lieturning officers should;. be held responsible < for v gnch exbibi. tions of bungling. Oar Rotorua

contemporary, commenting ■•.on the matter, says: "There, are fewpeople in Rotorua who have a favourable word to say in connection with the arrangements made to enable ■ the elector of the Bay of Plenty resident in this town to record fheir-'TOtes on Wednesday laot, aud

whether there be any justification for the feeling or not, it iieverthelfss exists, that some at least were unable to record 1 their votes. That ample provision was not made there can be no gainsaying, and that the returns from Rotorua were so loag behind the , others in being announced clearly iudicates that the arrangements were

not as perfect as tlioy might liaye been, At the opening hour a number

of voters wore in readiness to- record their votes, and throughout 1 the day this state of affairs continued, bo that it cannot;be agreed that the voters

came in rushes, Indeed, so great was' i the desire to record votes, and so slow was the process, that at one .time during the (iay it was found , absolutely necessary to close one of the doors leading into the polling booth, We hearj)f ladies having been carried out in a fainting condition, some of whom' are still Buffering frtyn the jostling and bustling that they were reluctantly compelled to endure; of others who attended three or four times during the day and yet /Wer'e i unable to record their. voteß;. of voters who remained in the precincts of the polling booth for two hours and a-lmlf before an opportunity occurred of enabling them to gain admittance into -the,'booth; and altogether a more unsatisfactory state of affairs it would be impossible to conceive. When it is considered that less than 800 votes were,recorded, it seems incredible that such a result was not accomplished in the time allotted with clock-work precision, instead of causing pain to Borne,, loss of 'time to many, and considerable annoyance to all. We have no to place the blame on the abonlilore of any particular individual, but it was apparent to' the veriest dullard in election matters that there was no system of working, and an apparent want of knowledge on the part of those who presided as to their duties,, both of which materially contributed to the state of affairs which' unfortunately existed throughout the day. That somebody 'blundered there is not the least doubt, , and wn hop<* steps will be taken to prevent a repe-. tition of what took place on Wodnes. day last." /,