REGISTRATION OF ELECTORS.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 108, 2 April 1880, Page 3

REGISTRATION OF ELECTORS.

To the Editor. Sir, — A great scare has been created by your stating that “ unless people will take the trouble to get their names placed on the Electoral Roll they will lose what ought to be considered a great privilege, namely, the right to vote at Parliamentary elections.” Your journal is usually very well informed on political subjects, and vour readers were naturally alarmed to think they had either to go to the trouble of reregistering, or be deprived of their votes. I think, with all deference to you, that you are misinformed. Clause 6of the “ Registration of Electors Act ” says “It shall lie the duty of every Registrar to make t’-e Rolls as complete ns possible, and with that object from time to time to place thereon, or add thereto, the name of every person of whose qualification as an electoi he is satisfied ; and it shall further bo his duty to assure himself of the right of every man to have his name retained upon the Roll.” The meaning of the Act seems clear that the Registration Officer’s duty is to find out all those who are entitled to have their names put on the Roll and to put them on, and that the duty is not cast upon the people themselves to make claims, although the Act provides for their making claims, a provision evidently intended for qualified persons who have been omitted, or who can claim when they have been in a district six months, or have come from another district, or who have a freeholdqualification. In Wellington the police are assisting the Registration Officer in compiling the Roll, and no doubt they can materially assist in this matter, but the responsibility rests with the Registration Officer. This Act is one of the really Liberal measures passed last session, and from the debates that took place in Parliament last session upon it, it will be seen that Government took upon itself to appoint a competent officer in each Electoral District to place everybody on the Roll who was entitled to be upon it. The Clerks of Road Boards have not now to send in the ratepayers’ list ; therefore, to read the Act as you have done, would make the Registration more difficult than it was before, instead of the contrary. I would advise electors not to take the trouble of registering, but to leave the Registration Officer to do his own duty, and then if the Rolls are not complete, to take the necessary steps to be placed upon it, for electors can now be put on the Roll at any time during the year, except after the issue of a writ for an election. Indications of an election are generally foreseen in sufficient time to register before the writ is issued. I hope, Sir, that the Registration Officer will see to the matter, and carry out the notification of Parliament without compelling those who are entitled to vote to go to the unnecessary trouble of registering. —I am, etc., An Elector. Blenheim, April 2nd, 1880.