THE BAY OF ISLANDS ELECTORAL SCANDAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5509, 22 November 1878, Page 3

THE BAY OF ISLANDS ELECTORAL SCANDAL.

(From the Lyttelton Times, November 10.) A great deal was said before the last session about the Bay of Islands Electoral 8011. The resignation of the Returning Officer, by request of the Government, at the time the Revising Court was about to adjudicate on his objections, was represented as the reason why the objections fell through, and the roll was swamped by native names. There was not enough gall in the land to season the editorial ink that was devoted to this subject. But a committee of the House of Representatives reported that the Returning Officer was very properly removed. As we pointed out at the time the vials of wrath were poured out,-this removal n?ed not have prejudiced the case of the objections in any way. The gentleman who succeeded the retired officer was duly instructed by him, and was ready to sustain- the objections which had fallen to his lot to sustain. Ho was not allowed to do so, by a most extraordinary ruling of the Revision Court. The lawyer for the claimant objected to the new Returning Officer's evidence, as he was not the officer who made the objections. In this he was right, because there is absolutely no limit to the impertinent folly that legal 'practitioners who are. so inclined may choose to exhibit on behalf of their clients, But those who preside in Courts are not bound to be guided by the transparent absurdities of counsel. Mr, Tolo, the lawyer in question, ought to have got a severe snubbing from the Judge of the Revision Court. To the astonishment of everybody his plea was allowed, and the whole of the claims objected to by the Returning Officer were allowed. This was alluded to by tho Colonial Secretary in the Legislative Council during one of the debates by that body on tho subject of the Bay of Islands electoral roll. Wo presume that the bright individual who gave such an extraordinary judgment will not be allowed to exercise his judicial mind again for the public benefit. It would bo satisfactory to learn that ho has followed the former Returning Officer into exile from the electoral department.