VALIDITY OF POLL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5078, 21 January 1927, Page 2

VALIDITY OF POLL.

kerepeehi ratinc area. CERTAIN POINTS DISPOSED OF. At the Magistrate’s Court,, Thames, yesterday, before Mr F. W. Platts, S.M., the validity of the poll held on Oct ber 26 last in connection with a proposal to raise a loan Of £7675 over the Kerepeehi Riding special rating area lor the formation and metalling of Wair.au, Kaikahu, and Pekapeka road - , within the Hauraki Plains County, was advanced a further stage. It, will be remembered that on December 17 last a petition signed by eleven ratepayers within the special rating area, was heard by the magistrate. At that sitting Mr E. J. Clen<’.on, for the petitioners, and Mr C. J. Garland, for the returning officer (Mr E, A. Mahoney) and the Hauraki Plains County Council, advanced certain points which, at, the request of the magistrate, were reduced to writing, and the magistrate reserved his decision until such time as he could look into the points raised by both counsel. At sitting the magistrate addressed counsel on the points o'f law as follows: — “It is, that the. preliminary steps required to be taken when a local body proposes to raise a loan, to wit, the publication of the proposal, setting foith the. purposes of the loan, the sum to be borrowed, the security, and the pr-vision for repayment, must be taken by the local authority in the manner prescribed by the Local Bodies Loans Act.

“That Act requires the chairman of the local authority to give notice of the date of the poll. The poll itself must be conducted under the provisions of the Local Elections and Polls Act. This course has been followed by the Hauraki Plains County Council in respect of the loan it propose? to raise for the Kerepeehi Riding special rating area. The council published the necessary statutory notice in the Thames Star on September 27 and October 4, 11, and 18. The public notice o'f the day and the place df the pell was given by the chairman in the. same paper.

“The allegations contained in the petition, "That the statutory requirements in regard to the poll were not complied with, and that no public notice of the day of the poll was given,’ must therefore fail. "The petition 'further alleges that the voting paper used at the poll was not in the form prescribed by law. The returning officer provides, voting papers in the form given in the Local Bodies Loans Act 1913.

“Counsel for the. petitioners maintains that the voting paper which should have been used is the form provided by the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Act, 1926. The was held on October 26, 1926. The amendment mentioned came into force on September 9, 1926. Section 5 df the' amendment provides, for use at all polls under the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1925. A form of voting paper materially different from the form used at the poll taken on October. 26. It must be remembered that this was a poll on a loan proposal. The Local Bodies Loans Act, 1913, provides a special form of voting paper for use at polls on loan proposals, although the Act of 1913 is repealed by the Local Bodies Loans Act, 1926. The latter again provides the same form of voting pappr for these polls. Counsel 'for the Hauraki Plains County Council pointed out that the course, of legislation shows that under the Local Bodies Loans Acts there has always been a special form of voting paper for loan proposals. The fact that the same form is provided in the latest legislation dealing with this subject, namely, by the Local Bodies Loans Act, 1926, shows unmistakably that .the Legislature could not have intended by section 5 of the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1926, an implied repeal of the form of voting paper provided by the. Local Bodies Loans Act, 1913. It is a reasonable irtference that the forms of voting paper provided by the Local Elections and Polls Act, 1926 for use at a poll on a proposal submitted to the ratepayers is intended for polls on any lawful proposal other than a proposal to raise a loan. “An example is found in the Gisborne case, where the proposal related to the tramway service. “The Court must hold that the returning officer, made use of the. proper form df voting paper in conducting the poll <>n October 26, last. "There have been one or two minor inaccuracies in connection with and mostly occurring after the poll. It cannot be said that these have maerially affected the result. There remains for decision the question whether the public notices of the proposal df the poll were pubished in a newspaper circulating in the district.”

Both counsel expressed their thanks to His Worship for disposing of the contentions raised. In reply to the Bench they stated that each side would require to call a number o'f witnesses as to the circulation of the newspaper in the proposed special rating area.

That being the position, the magistrate. intimated that he would fix Thursday, February 24, at 16 a.m., as the day for hearing the evidence.