The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER. 1, 1896. THE NEW ELECTORAL ACT.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 80, 1 October 1896, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER. 1, 1896. THE NEW ELECTORAL ACT.

As the general elections are now within measurable dit-tance as regards time, and it is important that every qualified person should be placed on the roll of the electoral district in which they now reside, we quote for ' general information some of the more important clauses of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. The Bill pro vides for the abolition of the nonresidential qualification, assuming that the validity of the existing registration of any person now so registered shall not be effected. No person registered in respect of a non-residential qualification shall be entitled to have bis name transferred to another district in respect of a residential qualification except during the period between the dissolution of Parliament *ud tbe issue of writs for the general .election. Provision is aiade for enquiry by the Registrar into seamen's claims for v enrojment. In any case where a woman whose name is on the roll subsequently marries, theßegia.

trar, on receipt of an application from • her for substitution of name, shall insert her married name on the roll, and if such application is not made or complied with before the issue of the writ, she shall bo entitled to vote in her former name. Primary schools may be appointed polling places, and must be placed at the' disposal of the Returning Officer for that purpose, and the cost of the election. The Re turning Officer is empowered to appoint as many deputies as he deems necessary, and a Deputy-Returning Officer is empowered to vote as an elector. The Bill also provides that no elector's ! right shall be granted after the issue of a writ for any election until the completion of such election. When a candidate withdraws his deposit is to be returned to him When an elector has voted a line has to be drawn by the polling clerk through his name on the roil, and a further clause provides that after the election the Registrar shall notify those electors who have not voted the fact that their names have been struck off" the roll We learn from the Standard of this morning that the member for Paluierston, Mr Pirani, intends to move several amendments to the Premier's Electoral Bill. Amongst others, he seeks to pro vide that electors whose names are sent in after the printing of the roll shall be notified that they have been duly enrolled, while another states that in case of not n^ore than thirty votes being recorded at any particular polling booth the result of the voting at that booth shall not be declared by itself, but under a heading " miscellaneous," thus further safeguarding the secrecy of the ballot. However sensible these may appear at first j glance, it is unlikely the introducer of the Bill, the Premier, will accept them. !