PURGING THE ROLLS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 499, 11 September 1912, Page 6

PURGING THE ROLLS.

NEED FOR REVISON. The chief electoral officer, Wellington (Mr P. W. Mansfield) has submitted a report on the electoral census carried out in 1911 in connection with the compilation and purging of the rolls. He states:—That the rolls were sadly in need ot a thorough revision was completley borne out by the electoral census. Altogether there were upwards of 169,000 fresh enrolments effected, 118,000 corrections in addresses, etc., obtained, and over 75,500 cases of non-residence in the various districts disclosed. In many instances there were over 4000 alterations in addresses recorded in a single electorate in the city electorates. Notices of objectiun were posted by registered letter to all electors who were not found to be included in the householders' schedules, and in all cases either in city or country electorates where no appeal was made against the registrar's proposal to remove, or where the postal officers were unable to trace the elector, it was intended to remove such names from the roll in accordance with the usual statutory procedure for purging the roll. In a few cases, however, it appears that through some inadvertence on the part of collectors or clerks notices of objection were posted to electors who were bona fide residents of the district. They naturally resented being informed by the registrar per notice that their names were to be removed on the grounds of non-resi-dence, but instead of advising him of their bona-fides by means of th 3 form of appeal and specially addressed envelope enclosed with their notice some of them wrote to the press or complained to members of Parliament, with the unfortunate result that a short Amending Act was passed a the end of the session of 1911 providing that objections to the retention of names upon the roll were not to be made on the grounds of the electoral census, and that al! names already removed on these grounds were to be restored to the roll forthwith. The result was that there were restored to, or allowed to remain on, the rolls over 41,000 names, practically all of which, there could be no doubt, had no right to remain thereon, and thus the userulness of the census so far as the cleansing of the rolls was concerned, was completely stultified. "Many registrars," he continued, "protested strongly against having to restore hundreds of names to the roll which they were quite satisfied had no right to be there, and in some instances, to my subsequent knowledge, the new Amendment Act was quietly ignored, and the purging of the rolls carried out in accordance with the original plan. The cost of the electoral census was £7296." At a later date it is intended to submit proposals for the compilation and purging of the rolls by means of an enumeration, carried out largely with the assistances and co-operation of the police and Postal Department, at a comparatively small cost, to trie country.