LICENSING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 288, 30 November 1908, Page 3

LICENSING.

According to" the Wairarapa Daily Times the Masterton No-license League put into operation for the recent local option poll an exhaustive system for clucking the voting and preventing the. illegal use of names on the rolls, The names of all voters were placed in small memorandum books, a separate book being prepared for each street in the,, tow,ns and each district in the country.

Canvassers were sent through the licensing district, and in the books they recorded the result of their canvas's; from house to house. By this method, there was accumulated information! which showed exactly who had moved to other districts, and so on, and names that should be taken from tne roll on account of death or other causes. All the information was transcribed on to the rolls of the league's scrutineers, \vlio received special instructions in regard to bogus voting and impersona- j tions The scheme was not designed to

prevent qualified persons from voting, but to prevent any person from exercising a vote in another person's name. On the Masterton roll were found the names of quite a large number of persons whose qualification was now in other electorates, or who had no qualification to vote at all. The-scheme was applied by the No-license party to all the electorates in the large centres of the Dominion. We understand that in the event of a petition being presented against the late No-license poll, it will need to be lodged by December sth, and that it will be heard before three Stipendiary Magistrates sitting at Masterton. Mr. James, S.M., would be the presiding Magistrate.—Wairarapa Daily Times.