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New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 731, 16 April 1853, Page 2

Wk would remind persons qualified to vote under the provisions of the New Constitution Act for the Superintendent of the Province, the Members of the House of Representatives, and the Members of the Provincial Council,, that the period within which their Claims must be preferred commenced yesterday, the doth Inst., and that all claims must be lodged before the 15th of May in order to their being entered on the List from which the final Electoral Roll is to be formed. The Police Office at Auckland is the place at which the claims are to be delivered for the City of Auckland, the Suburbs of Auckland the Pensioners Settlements, and the Northern and Southern Divisions; and, according to a Notice from the Resident Magistrate which has already appeared in our columns,, iho Office will be open for the reception of Claims, daily {Sundays excepted) from ten o'clock in the morning till four o’clock in the afternoon. The Police Office at Russell is the place at which Claims for the Bay of Islands district arc to be lodged. Although the Qualifications necessary toconstitute a right to vole must be known to most of our readers, it may not be amiss to re-produco here the section of the Governor* in-Chicfs Proclamation in which they arc defined: — ‘‘Pursuant to (he Provisions of (he above r:~ oiled Ad, every man of the age of 21 years and upwards. Inning a freehold estate in possession, situated within the District for which the vole is to be given, of the clear value of 00/. above all charges and encumbrances, and of or to which he has been seized or entitled, either at law or in equity feral least six calendar months next before the last registration of electors —or having a leasehold estate in possession, situated within such a district, of (he clear annual value of Ten pounds, held upon a lease which at the lime of such registration, shall not have less than three years to run. or having a leasehold estate so situated and of such value as afore* said, of which he has been in possession for three years or upwards next before such registration—or being a householder within such district occupying a tenement within the limits of the town, of the clear annual value of 10/.—or without the limits of a (own, of the clear annual value of £>/., having resided therein six calendar months next before such registration as aforesaid, shall, if duly registered be entitled to vote at the election of a Superintendent of a Province, or of a Member or Members of the Provincial Council thereof, or of a Member or Members of the House of Representatives, provided that he is not an alien —and that be has not at any lime heretofore been attainted or convicted of any treason, felony, or any infamous offence within any part of her Majesty’s Dominions unless he shall have received a free pardon, or shall have undergone the sentence or punishment to which ho shall have been adjudged for such offence.” The Claims must be in writing, signed by the person himself or some other by his authority, and must specify his place of abode, his calling or business, the qualifications in respect of which he claims to vote, and the name of the District or District* (for the same person may he qualified to vole in more than one) in respect of which the Claims arc made. "We trust it is unnecessary to press upon the attention of all qualified persons the importance of placing themselves—by this simple and inexpensive act of registration,—in a position to exercise a privilege which — honestly and conscientiously employed—is second in importance to scarcely any other enjoyed by freemen, and which especially on the introduction of a New Constitution, based on the broadest principles of representative government, may boused as an instrument of great and permanent good to the country.