Had Not Resided In Raglan Three Months

Chronicle (Levin), 16 April 1947, Page 5

Had Not Resided In Raglan Three Months

-Press Association

By Telegr-ph—

HAMILTON, April ' 15. Evidence as 10 tne eligibitily. of .15 oi ihe lo7 voters chailengetl by petitxonei, was lieai'd by the E'iectofat Coari lodao m the case in whieh Mr. HaJiyburtou •Johnstbne, defeated candidate lor nag »an, asxs that he be declared elected i.. place of Mr. Alian Oheyne Baxter. Iii all instahees except oue tiie votefs ha>. oeen enallengeft on the grohnd that the,, nad not resided . in . ther etectorate iOi ith-ee montns at the date' of the elee tion and tlie coniplexities which' th.. .v hoie nearing involyes, were typilieu this afternouh as several witnesSes toiu oi their tfansient mode of li'vmg in' tho iiiontris preceding the election. Jack Douglas Kennedy, ' a" farmer, told the L'ouri that he had not resideu in Raglan for three months, when he Mgned a declaration of enrohnenL. v r6ss-ex arai ried by Mr. R. Hardie Boys, /Or the respondent, Kennedy admltteu tuai in his declaration he aninned tha. he had been tliree months in tlie Hector ate. VVhat he told the Court today wa., true. His signed desc'larktion had bceu untrue. Lola Elorence Daily detailed hei changes of address during 1946 and said slie knew now that at the time oj enrolling she had nbt been three months ih Raglan. CroSs-examined s'he said that at the date of the eTection she had completed more than , three months in Raglan." Gordon Wilfred Bethel, of Frankton, labourer, brother of Mrs. Daily and likc lier oue of the voters ehallenged by petitioner, said that when he enrolled ,for Raglan on October 19, 1946, he believed lie had, been three months in that elec'torate. •Phyllis Eileen Dette, of Frankton, anotlier voter ehallenged by petitioner, Said she and her husband and her father-in-law shifted from London Street, Frankton, to Olwyn Terrace, Frankton, on September 16, .1946, The former address was in the Hamilton electorate and the latter in Raglan. They had voted in Raglan. Bettv Dinah Fisher told the .Court that after liviiig for some time in Epsom, on September 22, 1946, she accepted a job as housekeeper in Huntly. On October 21 she applied for registration in the Raglan electorate. Unusual circumstances were revealed by the evidence of a former airman Elmer Nevil McGill, who said he arrived back in New Zealand on October 22 with his wife, Trene McGill, and their two children. Tiiey spent a few davs with his parents at an address vwhich he now knew to be in the Hauraki dis trict. Thon they spe'nt a week with his brother in Frankton Junction and later visited various reldtives at different addresses. 4At thqt time I could not say I had a home Of my own at all," said McGill. Wliert. oh October 4 last he began work he was staying with a sister at her home -iji the Hamilton electorate but later spirit a we.ek at Ngaruawahia and exercised his vote there. Though he was seeking, a home of his, own he did not seeure one until this month. McGill said he left New Zea land in 1928 and spent ten years at sea in the marchant service. By virtue of his oecupation he claimed to liave maintained his New Zealand domicile. Before going to sea hfe lived and worked at Mercer in the Raglan electorate. In April 1939 he left tfre merchant service because he could see a war toming and volunteered for the Air Force which h" joined in 1940, kerving until his discharge late in 194'5. McGill said he had not previously been on anv electoral roll because he was a minor when he left New Zealand but he had neveT voted in England because he had no permanent home there. IMc.Gill said he and his wife enrolled on October 2 last year. The statement on his wife's de claration that. she had resided in New Zealand for oue year (whieh had nOt been struck out on the card) was incorrect, as also was the declaration tliat she had been three months in the elee torate. However, said McGill, 'before he and his wife enrolled he had telephoned Mr. John -Cameron Hallidav postmaster at Huntly and Returning Oflicer for Raglan at the General Eleetion. "Mr. Hallidav told me that provided T gave the address of the house in whicli T was sleeping on the night T made the application, it would be sufficient," he said, "and that if I voted in the district in which I worked before I went away it would be satisfactory. " McGill told the Court he believed his wife was entitled, as a war bride, to some concession in regard to registration. Cross-examined by Mr. T. P. Cleary fon respondent, McGill said Mr. Halliday had placed more emphasis on the fact that witness, as an ex-serviceman, was entitled under the Electoral Amendment Act of 3940 to exercise his vote "regardless of deelarations or otherwise. " Mr. Cleary: Blit vou did not know that an election p'etition would result in the matters being put under tho microscope. McGill said he had understood from Mr. Hallidat that a serviceman's wife was entitled to a concession excusing her from the normal residential qualification. Anotlier witness • heard during the afternoon was Ha-rold Fairliurst whose postai vote had been ehallenged bv petitioner and wha was called before other voters in similar category because he was leaving New Zealand tomorrow for England. Fairhurst said he votbd in Australia before a Justice of the Peace with papers forwarded to him by his father. He had applied in 1935 to be enrolled as an eleetor.