The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1884.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4131, 18 October 1884, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1884.

Ix is only what might have been expected from his public utterances that Mr Desmond should commend the action of the Colonial Secretary in restricting' the power of the Registrar of Electors to ascertain the genuineness of claims for registration. Under different eircumsttiuccs Mr Desmond's opinions on this subject would have demanded no comment. Through the exigencies of an election, however, it was necessary to tho success of the representative of the large landed proprietors that somo one should be put forward to split votes with the small-farmers' candidate. It was thus that Mr Desmond came before the community in the light of a public character. He had his role to assume; and it is very much to his credit that he overdid his part, and fairly did his best to "beat the horse" for whom he was only intended, to " make the pace." Since the election Mr Desmond has continued to wear the Dorrowed garb of a political leader, for, we presume, the purpose of keeping himself before the public with a view to a future appeal to the polling booth . Mr his learnt nothing from his defeat and from the tone of his letter ™ another column it would almost seem that ho is inclined to attribute his electioneering disappointment the absence of a stuffed electoral roll It is not many day*? since the Registrar of Electors summoned certain individuals beforo the Resident Court to show cause why their names should bo placed on the roll. Those people had sent in their claims in tho usual manner, and their qualifications for registration being unknown, the matter was referred to the police. The result of official investigation was that it transpired some of thoso claims had been sent in by minors, and some of the others possessed no qualification whatever. Thoso wore not the only claims that wero disallowed, but they happened to be tlie only ones which were brought beforo the Magistrate's Court. Ii the Registrar had been the slave of l'Cdtane," it would havo been extremely probable that a very much larger number would havo been punished for their attempted infringement of the law Mr Desmond says that, "in this district_ five hundred men have been disfranchised, simply because of official red-tape and obstruction." This is just one of those wild statements so dear to the ready tongue of a radical demagogue. There have not been five hundred men disfranchised in this or

auy other district through official obstruction ; nor have there been five sino-lo individuals prevented from registration through any other cause but their own neglect. No one denies that numbers of properly qualified persons were left out of the electoral roll, and so debarred from voting at the last election ; but whose fault was it ? It is safe to say that nine-tenths of those so left out did not value tho privilege of the franchise at the price of a postage stamp, and that unless they had been hunted up by political associations they would not have sent in any claims for registration. As it happened, the only claims left unregistered were those which came in too late. The writs were out beforo Mr Desmond's friends had been unearthed. Our correspondent is of opinion that advantage was taken of the law to politically extinguish five hundred duly qualified voters. We do not see that the law could be taken advantage of for any such purpose. The law may be bad ; we admit that it is almost as bad as it can be, but if there be a law that regulates registration, surely it is not the part of a political instructor of the people to say that it ought to be broken ? Are we to understand that Mr Desmond is of opinion "itissimpiy disgraceful" that the law was not broken for the sake of admitting to registration five hundred persons who had ignored the provisions of the law ? Is it not much more disgraceful that, in a country like this, where every opportunity is given for registration, five hundred persons should have neg-lected th« opportunity offered them P Is it necessary to remind Mr Desmond of the parable of the ten virgins ? Five were wise, and five were foolish ; when it was desired to light their lamps the foolish ones discovered that while they had slept their oil had burned out. And so it appears to have been the case with Mr Desmond's five hundred friends; when they wanted to vote they found they had not done that which would entitle them to go to the polling booth. With reference to the statement that claims were carried about in the pockets of country policemen till they were almost unrecognisable, Mr Desmond should have added that in many cases the claimant for registration was as undiscoverable as the claim paper was undecipherable. Mr Desmond should havo concluded his letter by advocating the stuffing of the rolls, and advising electors to vote early and to vote often.