ROLL STUFFING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1445, 31 December 1886, Page 3

ROLL STUFFING.

An ingenious method of roll stuffing which has been practised in tho Thames county, has lately caused considerable indignation on the part of bona fide rite payers in the district It happens that a , entleman who takes a'prominent part in county affair.- owns a large block of township land in which there are numerous vacant ce tio 1 ?. In order (th* n» to swell the number of persons ent t ed to vote at the county elections, these unoccupied sections are nominally let to inhabitants of the neighboring borough, or of other parts of the county, at 3s per annum The lesees then g apply to the County Council that their names may be placed upon the valuation roll for the rid.ng, and about two years ago 98 voters were thus created in a block on the eve ot an election. An attempt was made in the Magistrate’s Court t** resist the insertion of the ’names, but it was unsuccessful Two or three weeks ago it seemed likely that the number of electors in the riding was again to be augmented >n this extraordinary way, One resident in the riding, anxious to secure fair play, therefore went to the property-owner and agre d to take up a 1 the vacant allotments in the block, numbering about 100, at t>» each, s ipu ating, however, that they should ail be placed on the roll in the name of one person, and that the. rates should t e left unpaid until after next election, so that even thie one bogus vo’e should not b |r. ord id. Fa on pic# dmg to the ofhre ot the lana agent b was found that every section had already been let, so chat the arrangement was frus tr ted, A lively meeting of the ratepayers of the riding h»s since been held, and a Vigilance Committee appointed, to “use its uunoat endeavors to secure the electoral tights of bona fide tcsdents,” The laor.l id a’tei ded the meeting and d. Lnded hs right to sell or lease bis land as be choose, stating openly that he had S* both the p* wer and the audacity ” to do s>. The c-uncil intended to wait on the County C unc i and request that body to refuse all ..pplicatioiia from persons who seek io b -- placed on ihe ro I by virtue of their being ’he ho ders of receipts in respect of vacant allotments, thus compelling the r.pplicart to establish tha»r rights in the Magistrate's Court.