Untitled

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1656, 9 June 1875, Page 2

Perhaps it would be charity to suppose that the extraordinary bungling which has characterised the election for Waipa was unintentional and only attributable to the stupidity of the Keturning Officer. Persons accustomed to the hum-drum life of a ' remote country district do sometimes lose their heads when roused to unwonted activity by emergency. When the folly resulting affects nobody^ nobody need care, but tho conduct which has made such a mess of this electioa will not pass without comment, nor will tho result be permitted. Our rea<lers are aware that the election was fixed for Saturday last. On that day it was announced by a small piece of paper affixed to tho door of a polling booth that tho election would be postponed till Tuesday in consequence of tho halloling papers not having arrived. We are in a position however to asseit that the balloting papers were placed in th c hand of the Returning Officer, Major Mair, at Alexandra, on the previous day, before eleven o'clock in the forenoon, by Mr Montgomery, clerk of the Hamilton Resident Magistrate's Court, having boon forwarded from the printing office of the Waikato Times by tbo hands of that gentleman who returned e^rly the same afternoon and reported accordingly. That there was abundant time for the papers to bo sent from Alexandra to Te Avvamutu, Ohaupo, Hamilton, and 'N'garuawhia during the succeeding twenty - two hours, especially with orderlies to order, admits of no question; and without saying who is to blame, we do not hesitate to denounce the postponement of the polling as a deliberate and disgraceful electioneering trick. On the proper day for polling as announced, we are informed that quite a crowd of persons had assembled at Hamilton intending to vote for Mr Morris, and any one knows how reluctant people are, and especially in the country, to come away to exercise the franchise, and especially so if ones seemingly humbugged. The case of Hamilton was repeated at the other polling places, and the unwarrantable and unlegalised action of the Returning Officer in postponing the poll, has had the result of making the whole affair a ridiculous fiasco. It is needless to say the result of such bungling will not be tolerated. The best legal authority in New Zealand has stated the postponement was illegal, and though the Superintendent has power in certain cases of minor irregularities to give validity to an election, an affair so utterly void of all claims to be regarded as an election is not likely to be deemed deserving of a strain of this discretionary power. It will be seen by our Ngaruawahia telegrams that the bungling —or whatever it was.— was continued even on the second day fixed for polling, but it does not require this to give character to the whole affair. We are in a position to state that the course for such cases made and provided, will be taken to upset the so-called election, and to give an honest opportunity to the constituency to declare its will through the ballot-box.