The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5368, 11 June 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1878.

The name of Mr. John Ltjndon is very well known in Auckland, and, aforetime, it has been heard in the House of Representatives, and in the lobbies during session. Mr. Lundon is ambitious of serving his country, and himself, in the capacity of a legislator, and having fixed upon the electoral district of Mongonui and the Bay of Islands as that for which he would, in his own opinion, be a fitting representative, he has very industriously been preparing a constituency for that district which shall be worthy of himself. At the general election in January, 1870, he was a defeated candidate on the “ Grey” ticket, and, in consequence, through the instrumentality of a native, Heta te Hara, he preferred charges of partiality and improper interference with voters at the polling booth, against tho Returning Officer and the scrutineer or agent of the successful candidate, Mr. Williams. The letter of Heta te Haka was forwarded by Sir George Grey to the Government and, an enquiry having boon made, it was found that the charges had no foundation, Heta explained his action in the following memorandum, which will be found published with the other documents in the Parliamentary pape r H 28 in the appendix to the Journals of the .House of-Representatives for 1876 ;; :

tl It waa Lundou who urged jin© to write that letter, ae a reply to one from Sir George Grey

to me brought by Luudou, also one to Honi Mohi, one to Raniera Warerau, and one to Te Tai. All these letters were from Sir George Grey, asking us to vote for London. lam willing that this letter should be appended to these statements, in order that all may be made clear.— Heta te Hara.”

The letter of Sir George Grey to Heta, to which reference is here made, was as follows :

“ Auckland, 28th December, 1875.—My dear friend Heta te Kara, —I have given this letter to John London'that you may show kindness to him, because I wish this man to be a companion for mo.—From your loving friend, G. Grey.”

Sir George Grey’s desired “companion” took nothing by his motion on that occasion, and in the session of 1876 he petitioned Parliament. His petition set out, amongst other tilings, that in the year 1874 he sent in the names of over 300 natives to be placed on the roll of electors, 155 of which applications were attested by Mr. Patrick Lundon, his brother, and that Mr. E. M. Williams, whom he called the “ returning officer »f the said district,” objected to and disallowed 155 out of the 156. The Public Petitions Committee recommended inquiry, which was accordingly made by Major Clare, who was appointed a Commissioner for that purpose. His report, with all the documents, will be found in the Parliamentary papers for 1877, H. 3. Mr. Lund on withdrew all the charges, there being no shadow of foundation for them, and Major Clare reported as follows : “I think it is a pity that Mr. Lundon’s petition should have received the degree of consideration extended to it, and the stamp of notoriety always attached to a public inquiry. It is to be deeply regretted that a valuable public officer of Mr. Williams's long standing in the colonial service should, as a consequence, have been subjected to the indignity of having to defend his official character against charges which I can only think of as frivolous and puerile to au extreme; it is a pity also that time and public money should have been wasted upon such an inquiry. “Mr. Lundon failed to adduce any testimony whatever in support of, or from which to obtain even a coloring of justification for his rashness in advancing charges of this serious nature, violently attacking the character of an officer who, in the conscientious fulfilment of his duties as guardian of the public interests, was endeavoring to preserve the purity and integrity of the electoral roll of his district, and who acted throughout in strict compliance with the requirements of the law. “ William Clare, Major. “Russell, Bay of Islands, March 23, 1877.” Mr. Lundon has not, however, abandoned the projeet of fitting the electorate for himself, and in this year he put, as it appears, four hundred Maori claims to vote upon the list for registration. To these the Registration and Returning Officer, Mr. E. M. Williams, objected in the usual way, in discharge of the duty imposed on him by law—we presume on the ground of insufficient qualification of the claimants. Our knowledge of what transpired subsequently is derived from the pages of the “ Now Zealand Herald.” Wo quote the following from the issue of that journal of the 6th inst.:— “What has been done in reference to the electoral roll of the Russell and Mongonui district has created a good deal of stir, and iu all likelihood more will be heard of the matter when Parliament meets. It seems that application had been made to put on the roll about 400 natives, and that these were objected to by the Registration Officer. Who was right and who wrong is not yet made clear, as no facts showing what was the nature of the claims of these natives have been made public. Apparently, however, the Ministry considered that Mr. Williams, Registration Officer, had exceeded his duty, as he was informed that so long as his brother was the member for the Bay of Islands district, he would not be allowed to continue to hold his office of Registration Officer. In the meantime, the party at whose instance these native names had been put upon the roll retained Mr. Tele to appear for them before the Revising Court, which sat at Russell yesterday,—Mr. Lawlor presiding. A telegram from a correspondent states, that Mr. E. Williams, the Registration Officer, who appeared as objector, was called on to resign the morning before the Court was held, and the pilot, Mr. Baker, appointed in his stead. Mr, Tole contended, on behalf of the new native claimants, that as Mr. E. Williams, who had made the objections, was no longer Registration Officer, and did not appear in supportof the objections, they had a right to be put upon the roll, and this was agreed to by the Court. A good deal of feeling appears to exist in the district on the subject, one party contending that these natives have good claims to be put on the roll, while the other party say that these 400 claims are merely vamped up to oust the present member for the district and to gain the seat for a zealous supporter of the present Government. Perhaps it would have been as well not to have interfered with the Registration Officer till it was seen whether the Court decided that the objections he had made were merely frivolous. The subject will no doubt be fully inquired into when Parliament meets.”

We take it that the rankness of this job must have been excessively great to have drawn from our handsomely subsidised contemporary the hesitating censure that ‘‘ it would have been as well ‘ ‘ not to have interfered with the “ Registration Officer.” It might have been better, we think, to have abstained. On the 3rd June Mr. Lawloe, the Revising Officer, and Mr. Tole, M.H.R., solicitor for Mr. John Lund on and his native friends, left Auckland for Russell, where the Court was to be held. On the next day, before the sitting of the Court, Mr. Williams, the official objector to the Maori votes, it is said, was called upon to resign his place of Registration and Returning Officer, to which the pilot of the port, Mr. Bakbe, was at once appointed. Mr. Tole, M.H.R., then argued in Court, that as Mr. Williams had been cleverly extinguished, officially, by the Hon. Mr. Sheehan, and prevented from making the objection of which he had given notice, the four hundred Maori claimants to the franchise ought to be placed upon the electoral roll of the district without a question. The Revising Officer, Mr. Lawloe, at once admitted the soft impeachment, and the Enfranchised natives will rule the electorate. At the next election for the Bay of Islands, therefore, Sir Gboecje Geby will have the long-desired Mr. John London “ for his companion.” It is very difficult to believe, even upon the authority of the “New Zealand Herald,” that a trick so shameless can have been played by Sir Geoeoe Geey’s Government for the purpose of swamping the European vote by four hundred bogus Maori claims, in a district which has already a Maori representative. It is a new mode of ascertaining the “ popular will !” It may be regarded as a foretaste of what we may expect when the reign of perfect freedom and purity is established under the Premier and his colleagues. But if it be true, we agree with our con-

temporary that more will be beard of the matter when Parliament meets, and even before that time probably, for the business is really alarming.