THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1871, 21 February 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1880.

It is intimated in this evening's telegrams that the Government have taken the necessary steps for bringing the Registration of Electors Act, placed on the statute hook last session, into practical operation. As very many of our readers are probahly still unaware of the precise change which this Act effects in the system of registration, some explanation of its provisions may prove serviceable. First of all it is prescribed by section 3 that the Governor is to appoint Registrars and other necessary officers, and it is these whose names may bo expected to appear in the " Gazette " in the course of the next few days. As soon as may be after the commencement of the Act the Registrar of each electoral district is to form a new roll, and it is to be his duty to make the rolls as complete as possible, and from time to time to place thereon or add thereto the name of every person of whose qualification as an elector he is satisfied. It is also his duty to assure himself of the right of every man to have his name retained on the roll. Every person qualified to be an elector may make a claim and declaration in the prescribed form, and deliver or post the same to the Registrar of the district. A penalty of twenty pounds is attached to a false declaration. During the fifteen days following the receipt of any such claim the Registrar is to make enquiries as to the truth of the particulars stated therein, and if he is satisfied on this point, he is to add the claimant's name to the roll at the end of the period mentioned. If the particulars require proof, the Registrar is to give notice to that effect to the claimant. A claimant may, if he pleases, withdraw his claim; but if he fails either to withdraw it or give the proof asked for, the Registrar is to apply to a Magistrate or Justice for a summons, which is to be issued to the claimant in the form prescribed. If at the time of hearing the Registrar fail to appear, the name is to be placed on the roll. If the claimant fail to appear, the name is not to be inserted. It is observable that, in the case of neither party appearing, these two clauses, 13 and 14, would contradict one another. Such a case will probably be rare, but it would have heen better that provision should have been made for it. "When both Registrar and claimant appear the latter will be required to prove the particulars required by the Registrar, and according to his success his name will be placed on or excluded from the roll. The Registrar or any elector of a district may object to the name of any person being retained upon the roll for the district, by giving notice in writing to such person in a form prescribed. If. within fifteen days the person objected to does not cause his name i to be removed from the roll, the objector may apply for a summons. If any person objected to is unknown, the summons is to be left at his place of residence, as stated on the roll. Any objector, other than the Registrar, is to deposit a pound as security for costs with the clerk of the Court. The Court procedure is to be as nearly as may be similar to that prescribed for the case of a claimant to vote summoned to give particulars of his claim. It will be observed that in accordance with the provisions above summarised there will be no particular period of the year for making claims to vote or preferring objections, but that the rolls will be constantly undergoing a process of enlargement and purgation, and everyone who becomes qualified, no matter at what time of year, can have his name inserted at fifteen days' notice. The change from the former system, under which all alterations in the roll had to be made in the first three months of the year, will unquestionably be recognised as a vast improvement, and supposing the Act had nothing else to recommend it, its value would be sufficiently vindicated on this one account alone.

But perhaps the greatest convenience which is afforded to electors under the new law is the facility of transfer from one roll to another of electors registered on account of a residential qualification. When an elector so registered has removed from his district and lived for a month in another, he may make a written application to the Registrar of the district he has left for a certificate of his qualification. Upon delivery of this certificate, accompanied by a formal declaration, the Registrar of the district to which such person has removed is to insert the name upon the roll, but no name is to be so inserted between the issue and return of a writ for the election of a member of the House. Registrars, on issuing certificates of transfer as above, are to strike the names of the persons to whom they are granted from the roll of the district in which they have ceased to reside. Concerning this provision for transfer a question might, we think, be reasonably raised as to whether tho period of one month's residence in a new district was not in itself insufficient to justify the transfer of the vote, unless it was shown by the claimant that it was his intention to fix his residence there. It is noticeable that the Act contains no provision for the converse case, namely, tho erasure of a person's name from the roll after he had ceased to reside for any period in a district, unless he himself applies for a certificate of transfer as above. It is not, perhaps, a point of great importance,- but logically the same period during which residence in a district is to be regarded as a qualification should be regarded as a disqualification in the case of non-resi-dence, and the absurdity that it would be to strike a man off the roll because he was away for a month, exhibits the equal absurdity of placing him on the roll of any district to which he may have transferred himself for a similar period. Such are the principal provisions of this Act, which will, we hope, be now sufficiently intelligible to our readers. The remaining clauses deal with the arrangements concerning the roll. As to the printing of tho roll, and the mode in which the printed copies are to be brought np to date when required, it may be stated that the roll is to be reprinted whenever a hundred names have been added to the

official copy, provided there has heen no reprint within twelve mouths preceding. Otherwise a supplementary roll may he added at any time, and such a supplement is always to he printed immediately previous to a general election, or when a vacancy shall occur in the representation of any district.