THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1677, 18 December 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1873.

A decision- bearing directly upon Provincial elections, and which may shortly prove of extreme interest to the people of Westland, has recently been delivered by the Court of Appeal in Wellington, on a case brought up from ihe Supreme Court in Otago. The decision in question is tautamount to a judgment that personation, double, treble, or quadruple voting, voting under a feigned qualification, or making a falße declaration to the Returning Officer, are offences not punishable by law where it is only a Provincial election that is in progress, although in elections for the- Assembly the full pains and penaltie? for such offences are applicable. We should be very sorry to say that the immunity from punishment which this judgment confers upon personation would have any evil effect in our Province ; iv faot, knowing the morality of West- 1 ! landers, we are inclined to think that they will regard it as a point of honor to record only legitimate votes, and then only to record them once. It must be admitted, nevertheless, that it would be more satisfactory if it had been found that trangressors in these particular?, even in such insignificant matters as Provincial elections, were amenable to the law. The particulars of the case upon which the decision above referred to was arrived at are as follows :— ln July last, a man named Moore was charged I with personation and making false decla--1 rations during tbe general election for tbe Otago Superintendency, the charge being brought under "The Regulation of Elections Act, 1870." It was urged in defence that, although the 70fch section of that Act prescribes that Provincial elections shall be conducted "in the manner" laid down for the election of members of the Assembly, the words " in the manner" could not be held applicable to penalties imposed by the same Act, and on this legal point, although the prisoner was Jfound guilty on the facts, of having made a false declaration, the case was carried to the Court of Appeal, with tbe result stated. The opinion of the Judges was that a Provincial might be "conducted in the manner prescribed," without it necessarily following, that acts which were made penal in the case for which the manner, was originally prescribed, were also penal in other cases to which the same manner was rendered applicable. In other words, it was held tl\at in elections, as well as in other walks of life, the adoption of a " manner" does not always subject the adopter to tbe same responsibility for its breach. This is doubtless very good law, but it is exceedingly unfortunate that the discovery of so grand a truism could not have been deferred until the Provincial ele~CtlOlJS — l(lliuugli«ut — tUo — dolany — worn over. Of course, an Amendment Act will be passed next session, but in the meanwhile persons whose consciences on matters political are of an elastic order may commit any of the offences enumerated without fear of consequences.