VALIDITY OF A POLL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4424, 7 June 1922, Page 2

VALIDITY OF A POLL.

THE HAURAKI PLAINS LOAN. QUESTION OF A PETITION. ACTION FOR MANDAMUS. A dsipute concerning a poll taken by the Hauraki Plains County Council last January on a proposal to raise a loan of £30,600, principally tor the purohase of machinery, was heard in the Supreme Court, Auckland, on Monday, before Mr. Justice Stringer. it was stated that the date of the poll was January ,18. The returning officer published the result, 398 votes for and 265 against, in “The Hauraki Plains Gazette” on February 3. havinf already posted it outside his office on Februaryl. Op February 8 and ; 9 advertisements appeared in the newspapers, under the- name of the chairman of the County Council, declaring the proposal, carried. A petition by settlers in the uMrict' for inquiry was filed on February 23. it being alleged that electors were mis - led by the council or councillors ami its officers as to matters the subjeec of the poll; that electors were iplproperly refused votes 1 that the votes were improperly counted ; tnat electors were wrongly removed front the roll ; and that proper facilities tor voting were not provided. At thj hearing on March 7 Mr„ J. H. Salmon, S.M., upheld a contention that, he had no jurisdiction because the petition was not filed within 14 days of the first publication of the chairman’s notice, and he dismissed it.

Thomas Leonard and 56 others (Mr. Garland) now applied for a writ of mandamus commanding the magistrate to hear the petition, on the ground that, it was in order. Mr. Richmond and Mr Leary appeared for the County Council. Counsel on both sides admitted the difficulty of reconciling the require ments of the Local Bodies Loans Ac’, 1913, with those of the Local Eleetions and Polls Act 1908. It was argued by Mr. Garland that th'j time within which a petition could be presented ran from the completion of; three things, the making of a declaration as to the' result o£ the poll by the chairman, and the publication of that declaration both in the newspapers circulating in (he district and in the Government Gazette, and that if this contention were upheld, then the petition was in time. Mr. Richmond submitted that there was po necessity whatever for publication of the declaration in the newspapers because the appropriate sec.tion of the Local Elections and Polls Act required that -a petition should be lodged within 14 days of the declaration of the result. There was nothing at all said about publication. Mr. Leary argued that the application for mandamus would not lie, in the circumstances. Judgment was reserved.