The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1896. A WARNING.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 96, 20 October 1896, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1896. A WARNING.

Now that the elections are near at 1 band, for the guidance not only of the many candidates who are aspiring for I Parliamentary honors, but for com ; uiittee men and electors, we publish the following extracts from the Cor- ' nipt Practices Prevention Act, 1895 : ' — No candidate may spend more than . ±200 upon his election. Every payment must be made by the candidate 1 hiinselt, and not by any agent or ! agents, and a return must be furnished ' by the candidate to the Returning Officer, within seventy days of the 1 election, setting out every sum of I money received by him, or by anyone . on his behalf, for the purpose of beiny used in the interest of the candidate The return must also contain the name of any person to whom money was paid, and also a list of all claims, if , any, still unpaid. The return must be accompanied by vouchers, and if it should show an expenditure beyond £200 the candidate, even though elected, must lose his seat. Indeed, tbe penalty of a corrupt practice is not only the loss of the seat on petition, but imprisonment and removal for a term from the electoral roll. The Act ' ot 1881 makes it bribery to induce ■ people to vote, or to refrain from voting, by giving or lending them f money, or promising to procure them employment. It is also a corrupt practice to use any threat or intiiui dation to influence an elector to vote ' or to obstain from voting. On the polling day it is illegal to supply either drink — weak or — food, or to pay the expenses of any elector. It is . also illegal to pay for the conveyance of electors to the polling booth, to use > any part of an hotel for a committee room. All hotel bars must be closed on the day of the election from mid- ■ day until seven o'clock in the evening. Following the example of the Chronicle we have set out a few of the things, which, if done, are calculated to imperil a candidate's election, even should ' he be returned. The Acts of 1881 and 1895, however, contain a great many more important provisions,

which should be carefully studied by j all who are interesting themselves in . ' the approaching elections throughout j the colony. !