NAPIER HARBOR BOARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 4, 5 June 1913, Page 5

NAPIER HARBOR BOARD.

AN ELECTION PETITION DISMISSED,

Per Press Association,

Hastings, Last Night. An important magisterial decision relating to the conduct of local elections was given to-day in the petition to void the election of Eustace Lane, as representative of the Borough of Hastings, on the Napier Harbour Board, on the grounds:—(l) That Lane was ineligible to stand for election, his name not being on the Hastings Borough electors' roll, and (2) that the returning officer in giving the public the notice required by the Local Election and Polls' Act, 1908, failed to appoint a day, not more than seven days (exclusive of the day of the election) before the day for nomination of candidates. In dismissing the petition, Mr. McCarthy, S.M., held that the day of nomination was rightly fixed, and that Lane was eligible for a seat on the Board, in that his name was on the roll used at the 1911 election, it being the roll that should have been used at the poll under review, the roll actually used being invalid in that it was not completed before April Ist, the time fixed' for the completion of the roll under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1908, and regulation 17, which reads:—"lf from any cause whatever, the District Electors' Roll is not made out and completed, so as to come into force at the prescribed time, namely, April Ist, the roll to be used at the then ensuing election shall, apart from any extension un< dor Section ,')OS, be the roll in force at the preceding election." What then is the position? Mas the election been condueled under ari invalid roll? No allegation lo that effect is contained in the petition, and there is no proof before me as to any divergences, but one, be--I ween the two. rolls. How then can 1 sav the use of the invalid roll has materially a Heeled the result of the election? Mr. Lane polled f>2.> more votes than the next highest candidate, and it is. thought to upset his elecLion by mere technicalities. The Courts will not lightly upset an election by reason of irregularities of electoral 'officers, for which the successful candidate and the electors were in no way responsible, and at which neither he nor they have in any sense of the word connived." Tn my opinion. the petition should be dismissed, and it is dismised accordingly, with costs against the petitioner." '