CORRUPT PRACTICES AT ELEOUOSF.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 166, 14 July 1881, Page 4

CORRUPT PRACTICES AT ELECTIONE.

[(Evenirg Pest.) The -provisions of tbe clauses in Sh c Corrupt cr.c! illegal Practices Bii', in tro -"ced io thr Impeiial Parliament by : ir WiUbtr. Hat court, are understood to he ir precise cf incorporation in the til! havirg the pf.rae ohjeef, cf r.hieh the Pcßt-.*BBtc-i--Gc-nfta! now h;s charg* in tiie Houso of Bf prc-eeritssives. If ao, we as tiruaie «h^,t ihey wil! undergo cc-idf ruble liio.iifieation in c< mmittee befcre heirs allowed to pass into law io New Z'-aiftfcd. They ere indeed of a tiuly D.Ecotj'ian nature, for if no' absolutely written in "letters of bloo j" like tie famous code of the stern oM law-giver, .hey are at least written in letters of Ques, iffiprhonment, end bard lobcr. The definition of corrupt praciice is so wide that, we beve heard it re matktd, hardly sny member would be Bufe, and probably a considerable ptoponicn of members elected (o each Par!i_c_cr.t would speedily discover, to tbeir cost, that tbey hsd inadvertently rendered the mselves liable t> tho per* pi-tual di.'qaaiificatiop, the ten year-*' distsaachistmeEst, the £500 fice?, acd tbe two j ears' imprisonment with hard labor, whL'h -Bgreeable combination forms the penalty for any infringement of this law. It would te awkward, juet after a new Parliament wts elected, to h*va half the members hurried ofi' to chuies and riUcg*-oa to undergo lengthened terms of imprisonment, be branded «i.b perpetual infamy, loeb all political rights and pay ruioous fines. No doubt there exists au absolute need of more striDgenl legislation sgainst electoral corruption than that cew in force, but we fear such excessive severity as tliat proposed in the new English bill would _efe-_s itaelf in the loog run, and lead to a denyerous re-action. It is quite time that the present ecoioicus expenses of on election contest should be compulsorily lessened, srd that many objectionable practices which now prevai! thould be resolutely checked. The ri.k, however, is that u>.;due stringency asd severity may be io reality prejudicui to the ttiainment of the og'ecia which the measure is designed io compess — the increased purity ofelections.