A Suspicious Paragraph.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 505, 30 November 1881, Page 2

A Suspicious Paragraph.

A highly suspicuous looking paragraph appeared in this morning’s Mail. It read thus : To Wakauui Electors.—We have authority for stating , that in the cases of persons who are incorrectly enrolled on the Ashburton Electoral Roll, instead of the Wakanni Roll, they can have their names transferred on to the latter by making immediate application to the Registrar, and will then be enabled to participate in the voting op Friday week for the election of a member for the representation of the district in Parliament.

We do not know the nature of the authority referred to by our contemporary, but it seems to us that if the Registrar assented to the course proposed, he would be thereby opening the door to a wholesale stuffing of the Wakanui Roll just on the eve of the poll. Moreover, the proceeding seems prohibited by Section 25 of the Registration of Electors Act, 1879, which provides that the Registrar shall remove the name of every person from the roll who requests in writing that his name shall be removed therefrom; but no name shall be so removedpom the toll of any district of let the issue of a writ for the election of a. member for the said district until the completion of the said election. Clause 22 of the same Act, and Clause 7 of the Representation Act, 1881, also reveal the mind of the Legislature on the subject ; in fact the whole spirit of our election laws is that as soon as the writs are issued the rolls shall be closed up—for a very obvious reason. We trust that the Registrar will pause before permitting the rolls to be further altered.