The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5392, 9 July 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1878.

About a month ago we called attention to the fact that a clever coup cl ’ etat had been effected in the North, by which four hundred bogus Maori votes had been placed on the roll for the electoral district of Mongonui and the Bay of Islands, with the view to secure the return of a new member of tho House of Representatives for that district ,in the person of Mr. John London. We showed that Sir George Grey was exceedingly anxious for Mr. London’s success, and that he had with his own hand addressed, letters to the Maoris of the district, urging upon them the claims of his friend. We reproduce this affectionate circular : Auckland, 28tU December, 1875. My Dear Fried Beta To Ham,.-I have given this letter to John London that you may show kindness to him, because I wish this man to bo a companion for me.—From your loving friend, CJ. Gxiey.

The desire of companionship appears to have been strong and common between knight and squire, and it may be admitted that each has ardently desired to break down the barrier of the popular will, the “envious wall” which kept the political JPyramus from his “Thisbe dear.” The information which wo had about this smart affair was derived from a somewhat retiring paragraph which we discovered, modestly hiding itself, in the columns of the “New Zealand Herald.” .In it the matter was dismissed with the n.’ild comment that “perhaps it would “ have been as well not to have interfered “ with the registration officer until it “ was seen whether the Court decided “ that the objections he had made were “ merely frivolous.” The statements made seemed to us so incredible that we contented ourselves with a recital of the facts, and waited for further evidence. Our Auckland contemporaries, subsidised .and independent journals as they are, have been discreetly silent, and in order to got at the history of tho affair we have been obliged to have recourse to outside testimony. An intelligent correspondent has favored us with the following communication, which we earnestly commend to the attention of our readers, in perfect reliance upon the truthfulness and accuracy of tho statements contained in it: — In 1873, Mr. John Lundon contested the election •with Mr. J. W, Williams and Mr. J. T. Macfarlanc for the seat vacated by the resignation of Mr. John McLeod. He (Mr. Lundon) told the electors, so the story goes, that he was very much disgusted with McLeod for resigning, as he had put him in, but that they should not .suffer any inconvenience by it, as he had now determined to represent them himself, but unfortunately for him be was beaten. Tha following year Mr. Lundon sent in some 300 Native claims for registration, which were, for tho moat part, objected to by the registration officer; but owin* to the fact that tho revising officer, Mr. Lawlor, did not arrive at Bussell in time, the Revision Court did not sit. consequently all the claims sent in for that year, both European and Native, 101 l through. This originated Mr. Lumlon’a petition to tho House. In 1870 Mr Lundon again contested the election with Mr. Williams, and ran on tho Grey ticket. , t After this election Mr. Caricton determined to test the legality of natives holding their lauds in common under Crown grant, certificate, or memorial of ownorcLld being entitled to tho privilege of the franchise, ana ho selected two of tho principal chiefs In the district, Hono Mold Tawhai and another, the two biggest fish, as ho said, that ho could net hold of, and objected to them; and at tho Revision Court Mr. Lawlor, the revising officer, eavo it against the natives, and their names were struck off tho roll. Tho following year tho registration officer, acting on the rufo laid down by Mr. Lawlor. objected to all tho native names on the roll which he considered were not entitled to the franchise, and In every instance bis objections were sustained by the revising officer. . . .. This year Sir. Lundon, preparing for the dissolution of Parliament, sent in through his native agents some 400 native claims for registration, tho qualifications being freehold and household, which were for tho moat part, if not all, objected to by the legislation officer, Mr, Williams, and the names published in tho paper, as required by law, a great, number of these names having been objected to and struck off tho roll at-the Revision Court by Mr. Lawlor, the revising officer, in the previous year. • t . “' The Revision Court sat at Russell on tho oth of June last, but on tho 4th, tho day before tho Court sat. Mr. Williams received a telegram from tho Government, from Wellington, requiring Mm to resign

by telegram his office of registration and returning officer for the district; and on the same day appointed Captain Baker, the pilot and harbor-master, to take his place. When the Court opened, the honorable member for Eden, Mr. Tolo, who was present, said that he appeared on behalf of the natives, but before ho went on with the case would make an objection which he considered would be fatal. Ho said that all the objections were made by Edward Marsh Williams, registration and returning officer, but that owing to his resignation there was no such person to sustain the objections, for although another person had been appointed ho could know nothing of the matter. Mr. Lawlor sustained the objection put forward by Mr. Tolo, and at once passed the whole list objected to by the registration officer, including persons who had sold their qualifications, householders who hadleft the district, dead men and all, and over 400 bogus votes were placed upon the roll, thcieby completely swamping out the bona, fide electors of the district. A'-though'Mr. Williams appeared to have been kept in utter ignnrmc ’ nn‘il the I st moment of what was about to t ke place, the not vosh -d evident'y been in*for "pd ly some one pr vil gnilto go behind the scenes, ami hail given out that th'r were going to “whskitaka" Mr. Williams, that i J , tl'ey w :re .'oing lo oust h mfrora office (or having p r esumeU io object to the r claim ; it had aho been intimated in t'<c Herald a to freight b.-foro Mr. Williams icculved the ofllclal te'eg'am. Hone Mohl Tawhai was sfc u k off the roll, having rpgi-tered ns freehold on land held in common with others; tha fol l owing yoftr he pnfr in a cl>»im -s householder, behaving a good “ooden lious?, niicl was not objected tthe cla’m being good. While Mr. Luivion, through his native agents, has t een e- do ivo ing to stuff roll wifrh native votes, and has at last, through the kind anistanoe of the Govemme t, succoe Jed. th- opposite p Tty have not adv r nced one singl nativo name, balding upon the decision given by the evising officer, Mr. Lawlor, in tho previous year, tint natives holding their lands in common were not omit ed to th - (ranch se. 1 forward bv post a copy of the ILt of nam-s objected to, and have *et a X against tin names of those who had been'objected to and struck off the roll by the revising officer, Mr. Lawlor, in the p.ov!ous year—about sixty name*. - The law imposes on the registration officer the duty of objecting to a claimant, “if “ from any cause whatever” he is not entitled to be pat on the electoral roll. The objections to Mr. London’s native friends’ claims were published in the “Northern Advocate,” a copy of which is how before us. The qualification stated for the claimants in almost every case is “ freehold and household.” The objection of the registration officer is “ not a “ freehold or household within the mean- “ ing of the electoral law.” ‘ The freehold qualification for an elector is defined by the Constitution Act as “having a freehold estate in possession of the clear value of fifty pounds above all charges and incumbrances. The “household ” qualification is the occupation of a tenement, not “ within the limits of a town, of the clear “ annual value of five pounds, in which “ the claimant shall have resided six “ months next before such registration.” The law declares specifically that the land held by natives in common upon memorials of ownership is not a freehold, and it needs no law to declare that the ordinary Maori shanty in a native pa in these days is not a “ house ” of the clear annual value of five pounds within the meaning of the Act. These questions, however, were no longer in doubt; they had bean judicially decided before as to the principle, and directly against a great many of the very claimants who have now got placed on the roll. The revising officer appears on this occasion to have allowed himself to be carried away by the imposing force of a legal member of the House of Representatives, notwithstanding the. fact of his own former adverse decisions upon the general principle as well as on the individual claims.

What appears now is as follows ; —Sir George Grey has long desired to have Mr. John Lundon as a companion in the' House of Representatives. Mr. London has been animated by a similar desire, and has made strenuous efforts to lit the constituency at the Bay of Islands for the honor he intended to confer upon them. He has been several times foiled by its being proved that he was seeking his end by illegal means. He has made on this occasion, in view of a proximate dissolution of the Assembly, a. supreme effort. The Government have deliberately helped him to stuff the electoral roll with 400 bogus Maori claims and swamp the European vote. They have effected this by requiring the registration and returning-officer, Mr. Williams, to resign his appointment ly telegraph the day before that upon which the objections he had officially made could be heard and determined by the officer of the Supreme Court appointed according to law for that purpose. A legal gentleman, a member of the House of Representatives, and an obedient follower of the Premier, engaged professionally for Mr. London’s friends, pleaded this act of the Government as a bar to further inquiry by the revising- • offlcer, and was thus successful in getting the whole four hundred names put on the electoral roll. Out of Hew York in the glorious days of Boss Tweed, probably no more scandalous attempt to corrupt an electoral roll, and to mar the judicial action of a lawfully-constituted. Court, has ever been recorded in an English-speaking community. If this trick can bo successfully played at the Bay of Islands, it may be repeated at Olive, in the Bay of Plenty, here in Wellington, and in other European as well as native districts throughout the colony, and the laws which successive Legislatures have elaborated for the purpose of securing freedom and purity in elections may be abrogated at any time by smart administrative action on the part of an unscrupulous Government. Our respectable Northern contemporary was right in saying that this business will be hoard of again, and again, and will bo fully inquired into when Parliament meets.