LOCAL ELECTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1754, 20 May 1913, Page 3

LOCAL ELECTIONS.

ANOMALIES IN THE LAW.

ADDRESS BY MR. D. M'LAREN. Mr. D. M'Laren addressed a meeting of filfcen members of the Wellington branch ot the Labour party on municipal law and local elections in the Trades Hall last night. Mr. W. 11. Hampton presided.

Mr. M'Laren said his purpose was to open up a Mibject for slimy by the public of Wellington, for very few pcoph l iiad any idea of local government law asul its rotation to tile vory important elections held inula' it. It was regarded as a great democratic advance when, what was supposed to be practically the Parliamentary franchise was made to apply to municipal elections. He would be quite satisfied if the Parliamentary franchise roall.v did apply, but as a mailer of fact there were many complications in tho law. The ordinary citizen knew very little of the

: iw by which he had to abide in theso \ lections. There were no fewer than lour Ac!- alfeeting them —the Municipal Corporations Act and its amendments,, tho Local Elections and Polls Act and its amendm™ls, the Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act, and the Harbours Act It was hard to understand why an Act ■ike tits Local Elections and Polls Act did not contain all the law necessary to regulate elections and polls, and in his opinion it would be well jf~the law were made as to be contained in one Aot. I ho tranchi-i:- had come by a. process of evolution, and the principles underlying the several qualifications for enrolment were really contradictory. There were the ratepayers' qualification, the rentpayers' qualification, the residential qualification, and the right of husband and wife. The. effect was to make some of the clauses in tho Act more or less ridiculous. For instance, the claimant uwbr thj> residential qualification had to bo a British subject by birth or naturalisation, but no such restriction was imposed upon the man who claimed • the franchise as a rentpayer. Another anomaly was that a wife claiming to vole by her husband's right as a ratepayer need not be resident in the country two days before she was entitled to enrolment. Ho had heard of such a case when the Inst roll was being compiled.

Wily should they not adopt, straightforwardly the Parliamentary Tolls for local elections in boroughs? Tho only objection he had ever heard raised to this was that tho boundaries of boroughs were not co-termiuons with the Parliamentary electorates, but this seemed to 'him a very foolish argument. There was a provision in the Act that in boroughs still holding their elections by wards, tho whole roll could be taken for certain polls of all tho electors. Ho did not seo why a portion of the suburban rolls could not be brought in in the samo way for the general city elections. If this were done they would have a more correct, and a cleaner, roll than they had now.

He had no hesitation in saying that there liad been instances (perhaps not many) of plural voting in the elections for the Hospital anil Charitable Aid Beard. People qualified to vote in two portions of the combined district had voted in both. This was of course illegal. The compilation of the roll was-left entirely to one man, the town clerk. In commenting upon this fact, he did not wish to attack any public official, becauso he knew the difficulties the present holder of the town clerk's position met with in preparing the Toll. For instance, one John Smith might, apply and be enrolled, although lie might be already enrolled as resident in another street, and the town clerk would practically have to allow tho application in the absence of cvidcnco that this John Smith was the same person as the man already enrolled. In view of the fact that exhaustive inquiries ought to he made, il was snrelv wrong that, the duty of compiling the roll should be left to an officer burdened with such •a multiplicity of other duties. Also, leaving all the power of interpretation in the hands .of one 1110.11 might have tho effect of disfranchising all • the electors, as for in the case of...the half-holiday question. It was a fact .that 1030 names, wrongly struck oft the main roll, were reinstated in (he supplementary roll. What would have been the result of the petition if 1 b"lPOfi.lyu! heen still on the roll by which the petition was tested? It might have made all the difference. Another absurd anomaly arose out ot the prevision that a. claimant for enrolment cauld appeal to a magistrate against the Town Clerk's refusal to enrol him, in that; the period for appeal expired 011 March 22 in each year, whereas the roll was frequently not printed, and did not come into force until April 1. It was time that , all municipal electoral matters were controlled by a special department, for the Town Clerk simply could not do it. The adoption of tho Parliamentary rolls would have the effect of cheapening the epst of preparing the roll, for the City Council would then pay 110 more than some portion of the cost of the roll to the Government, instead of bearing tho whole cost themselves.

Ho. spoke of the control of elections, condemning very strongly the laxity that prevailed regarding the care of uiuised ballot papers after the closing of the poll. In some booths tho unused papers were collected and sealed up, but in others they were left lying about, and used as memoranda by the clerks during tho count. Insufficient provision was maiio in the Loral Election and Tolls Act against corruption. Thero. was nothing in the Act, as there was in tho Act governing Parliamentary elections, to limit tho sum to be expended by any candidate. AYhen newspapers published matter about a candidate at the time of the election, the individual who published it should not have the shelter of a nom-dc-plume, but should be required to stand out in the open just as.the man he was hitting had to stand.

Mr. M'Laren answered a number of questions, and subsequently members at ths meeting, discussed the subject generally.

Sir. W. Maddison moved: "That this meeting is of opinion that all local bodies elections should bo conducted under the Parliamentary Elections Act." The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously.