THE GERALDINE AND WAITAKI ELECTIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 4046, 14 February 1876, Page 3

THE GERALDINE AND WAITAKI ELECTIONS.

(From the Press.) g *l 113,8 - B°P e b y w|ien Mr Wakefteid s return can be petitioned against. The Elections Petitions; Amendment Act, 1862, provides that no election petition shall be by. /the House of s Representatives ixuless the preliminary requirements of the Act of. 1868 and of the amending Act have been fulfilled.; and one of these requirements “ tha t the petition shall be delivered to the Returning Officer of the district in which the election,shall have taken place, or, in case of his absence or, incapacity to act, to the Rarest Resident Magistrate, within one moiitii after the declaration of the state of the poll by the Returning Officer. The petitioners are then required to enter inW a bond, with penalty and sureties, lor the * due prosecution of their' peti- *!° n - Mr Wakefield was elected on the 27th December. The prescribed month {with the better part of a second) has elapsed; JS? f* from the ‘Timaru Herald,; which doubtless speaks with accurate knowledgo that no petition has been- lodged agaxnat him. He is therefore perfectly safe. rt the assertions made, respecting the two W aitaki members are correct, Mr Sljrimski Hislop certainl y. disqualified. There may be doubts whether tue first comes under the Act, but there can surely be no doubt about the latter. Both the newly-elected members for the Waitaki district, especially Mr Hislop, will, in view of the possible penalties, do well to abstain xrom taking their seats until the lawfulness of their return has undergone investigation by the proper authorities; 6