The Taihape Daily Times SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1915. THE ELECTION MUDDLE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 102, 2 January 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times

SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1915. THE ELECTION MUDDLE.

AND WAIMAEINO ADVOCATE. v Witk which is incorporated The Tmhape Post ,in Waiinarino News.)

The muddling and bungling of competent and incompetent returning officers at the late elections has left the situation quite undecipherable by the majority of people in the country who ba\e no'- 'he time to study thivmat'ter closely from day to day : as: new developments are presented." w ith the best of good fortune, and the conduct of affairs with an absence of further muddles omen ess, we may know what party has a majoriy by some time in March next. As investigations have proceeded, some extraordinary i processes and happenings havjf,beep discovered; but the most perplexing of all is how some fifty additional voting papers could have found their way into the ballot box between the first count of the deputy returning officers (past the official recount) and the magisterial recount. Returning officers have so many voting papers handed to them for which' they have to officially account, under a penalty of fifty pounds, Thercfore, we must absolve those officers from any attempt to play fast and loose with numbers; but as the voting papers are numbered by. automatic machine, it also seems that deputies and clerks can not very well, under the eyes of scrutineers, make any variations of the course provided by law There has been great dktfat:-ifac-tion expressed, rot only in ;>h.v» where recounts are taking plaee, bor, also in places where mar.ers have so far been allowed to remain quiet, with the handling of absentee and expeditionary force votes. In one large centre the supervising Justice of the Peace was asked by the returning officer to come back at night, on the day of the official count, and before ordinary votes had been counted, and go through the permits and expeditionary votes. The Justice said he could not do that as he did not think it a proper course; the returning officer then, without saying anything further, disregarded his supervising Justice of the Peace, and went and got another to come along, and the votes were counted in the. absence of the properly appointed officer. This indicates that in face of the superfluity of instructions given for the guidance of deputies and clerks, chief returning officers have played a sort of go-as-they-please game. We are inclined to think, from information coining to hand, that deputies and clerks are being made scapegoats to screen others. We trust, however, that the methods of conducting the elections that have given rise to the present most; unsatisfactory and extraordinary state of affairs, will be fully revealed, leaving nothing to be discovered, by the courts at the hearing of petitions that are to be lodged. A Press Association mensage from Auckland on Thursday informs us that a petition will be lodged with a view to unseating Mr. Parr, in the Eden electorate. This notice is the legal preliminary, deemed advisable lest the returning officer be not available, as j was the case in Wellington senile! years ago. Tim grounds of thi-.ij petition relates to the issue of a i document by another ;s (Mr. Harris) secretary to Mr. Parr's committee, offering Mr. Wesley Richards £IOO to- go to the poll. In Dunedin Central re-

■priifciOiifraliyoK of labour organisato have Mvi.Mnrn'o declared! elected; ,r ffolil ion. is that Ke-np.oile.d the highest number of votes. In addition to these there arc signs of the law being put in motion in the Bay of islands. Wellington East, Waikato, Norther* Maori, ms well as in some other plae.f-s where no definite developments have yet been readied. It will, therefore, be semi that the public generally must; curb their anxiety to know who is going to govern, them for the next three years till the unnecessary, unaccountable bungling has been cleared up. The strength of pai> ties, as at present indicated, is near enough equal to make but little difference.