TAUMAURUNUI ELECTORATE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 740, 27 January 1915, Page 5

TAUMAURUNUI ELECTORATE.

MR WILSON'S PETITION. Tho petition of Mr C. K. Wilson in connection with the recent election for the Taumarunui seat, has now been published. As has been previously noted, one of the chief points made by the petitioner is to the effect that thsre is a discrepancy between the votes counted and the votes marked off on the marked roll of the Returning Officer of 328 votes. It is alleged that thirty persons appear to have received ballot papers at two polling places; that persona who had voted at the preceding election and were still resident in the electorate, but whose names did not appear on the roll, tendered their voteß, and required to be allowe.l to make the prescribed declaration in order to vote, were refused th 9 right to do so; that the names of other persons were illegally placed and illegally retained on hte roll, including the names of Maoris of full blood; that William Thomas Jennings was not entitled to be a candidate at tfie election because he was not duly registered as an elector except in tha Taumarunui electorate. It is contended that as Mr Jennings was not a resident of Taumarunui his application to ba registered, as anjslector of the Taumarunui district was void. The following irregularities are also alleged:—■ "At the polling booth at Mahirakau 185 votes were recorded. The polling booth was not opened until after halfpast nine o'clock on the day of the election. No provision was made at the said booth for maintaining the secrecy of the ballot. No compartments separate from and opening into the booth were provided for the use of voters. Large numbers of voters were admitted to the open booth together from time to time, and received and marked thair voting papers each in the full sight and presence of the others. "At the Brixton polling booth, one, Crawford, entered the booth and remained therein assisting the Deputy Returning Officer in the performance of his duties for a long time without any authority of law. "The said Crawford was a prominent supporter of the said William Thomas Jennings, and the petitioner believes and alleges that the said Crawford was a member of the committee of, and an agent of the said William Thomas Jen-tings. "At the polling booth at Otorohanga, 375 persons voted. For long periods of time the said booth was crowded with "persons, a very large number being present together and not engaged in voting. "On many occasions on the 10th day of December, 1914, and during the hours of polling, the said William Thomas Jennings entered from time to time and remained for some time in both of the booths at Te Kuiti. "When the official count Was proceeding the said William Thomas Jennings entered and remained in the room where such official cuunt was being held by the Returning Officer. "Prior to the issue of the writ and after th 9 said William Thomas Jennings had publicly declared himself to be a candidate, an agent of the said William Thomas Jennings caused a large number of persons to .be illegally placed on the roll by issuing applications for registration filled in and purporting to be attested to be sent to such persons, in consequence whereof such parsons signed such application and transmitted the same to the Registrar of Electors and were entered upon the roll without their applications having been duly attested as required by law. A number of persons who were registered pursuant to such applications ware not in fact entitled to be registered as electors,'