ELECTORAL BILLS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1764, 15 October 1879, Page 3

ELECTORAL BILLS.

[Bt Telkobaph.] The Registration of Electors Act introduced by Mr Hall contains twenty-four clauses. It deals with the appointment of registration officers, who are to form the electoral rolls. No name is to be placed on a roll until three months after the registrar declares whether other names are on the roll. A twenty pounds penalty is imposed for false declaration. During fifteen days after the receipt of a claim, the registrar is to make inquiry as to the truth of the particulars, and to give notice to the claimant, setting forth the grounds of any objection. If claimant does not withdraw his claim, the registrar will summon claimant before a Resident Magistrate, and the parties may appear personally or by agent or by solicitor. If the registrar is absent the name is to be placed on the roll, and if the claimant is absent the name is to be struck off. The onus of proof is to bo with the claimant. The Resident Magistrate has power to compel the attendance of and to examine witnesses. Costs to be at the discretion of the Court. The registrar or any person on the roll may object to names being placed on the roll. The roll to be printed and bo open for inspection and to be reprinted periodically, if additisnal names are placed on it, and any person is to bo entitled to a copy of the roll at a reasonable price. The Electoral Repeal Bill repeals thirtyfive Acts dealing with election, registration, and representation. The Maori Representation Bill contains 18 clauses. It qualifies every Maori of twentyone years and upwards, not attainted or convicted of felony or infamous offences, to be an elector, and to vote in the election of Maori members. These are to bo elected for the whole colony, and to bear the same proportion to the entire number of members of the House of Representatives, exclusive of the Maori members thereof, as registered Maori electors bear to the European electors of the colony, to be apportioned into districts corresponding with the number of Maori Eiembers, equalised as to the number of Maori electors therein. The polling places are to bo gazetted thirty days previous to nomination. Nominations and polls are to be conducted as in the election of European members, but Maori voters are to state to the returning officer the candidates for whom they vote, and the returning officer or deputy is to write the

name. The scrutineers may attach their initials. Notices relating te ’these elections are to be printed in Maori and English. The Qualification of Electors Act is entitled an Act to define the qualifications of electors of members of the House of Representatives, and contains five clauses. By clause two every man aged twenty-one or upwards, having a freehold estate in possession, situate within the electoral district for which the vote is to be given, of the value of £25, whether subject to encumbrances or not, and of or to which he has been seized or entitled at law or equity for at least six calendar months next before registration of his vote. Every man who has resided one year in the colony, and in the electoral diftrict for which he claims a vote during the six months immediately preceding the registration, and who is not registered in respect of a freehold qualification under the Act in respect of the same district. “ Registration of vote ” is to mean the day on which any person lodges a claim with the registration officer, or the day on which the registration officer places the names on the electoral rolls. Aboriginal Native inhabitants of New Zealand, including half castes living ns members of a Native tribe according to their customs and usages, and male descendants of such half castes by aboriginal Native women, are not qualified to be registered as electors under this Act, but may be registered as electors under an Act intended to bo passed in this session of Parliament, conferring special representation on the Maori people. No alien nor person attainted or convicted of any treason felony or infamous offence within any part of her Majesty’s dominions, unless he shall have received a free pardon, shall be entitled to be registered. Every man registered as an elector, but no other person, is qualified to be elected a member for any electoral district within the colony. Any member of the House of Representatives ceasing to be registered as an elector shall not from that cause only be disqualified from •ontinuing such member, notwithstanding anything in this Act contained. Until the electoral rolls, to be framed under an Act intended to be passed in the present session, shall come into force, all persons who may be qualified to vote at any election as holding miners’ rights shall continue to have, and may exercise as holders, such miner’s right, the meaning hereof being that until the date hereinbefore mentioned, none of the persons to whom this section refers shall be deprived of any privileges, which but for this Act they would have had or enjoyed.