THE LICENSING POLL.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1919, Page 5

THE LICENSING POLL.

(SOLDIERS WITHOUT VOTES, DEPUTATION TO MINISTERS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last IS'ight. A deputation consisting of Messrs C. W. Batten (president), 1). M. Seymour (general secretary), and A. C'urtayne (local secretary), representing the .Returned Soldiers' Association, the Revs. •I. Dawson and W. J. Comrie, representing the New Zealand Alliance, and J. Raw and F Madden, Trade interests, waited upon Sir James Allen, actingPrime Minister and Minister for Defence, and Sir Dillon Bell, Attorney^ier.eral, and made a strong appeal tor tne Govcmment to take measures "to give the privilege of vote to discharged returned soldiers who had failed to enrol in time. Mr. Batten said the Returned Soldiers' Association knew of no men who had been disfranchised in Wellington, l>«t it was reported there were a number of men in Auckland who were concerned, and that there was a possibility of serious trouble if they were not given a vote. Sir Dillon Bell expounded the law to j show it was not possible for the Govern-1 ment to give by regulation any right to vote when no such right was conferred by law. He produced the text of the Memorandum he had written to Sir Jas. Alien on the subject. The memorandum was as follows: "I conferred with the Solicitor-General this morning, and, without comment of my own, submitted to him the question whether it was possible by any process to take at the special licensing poll the votes of men who have been discharged from the Expeditionary Forces and have failed to register themselves as electors. I asked the SolicitorGeneral to consider the question and meet you and myself in a second conference at a later hour this morning. I did not inform the Solicitor-General of the advice 1 have already given on the same subject to yourself as Minister of Defence and. to the electoral department. For your record I state the advice given at the second conference. The SolicitorGeneral advised, as I had previously advised, that no regulations can legally be made conferring the right to vote upon persons whose names do not appear upon an electoral roll, unless those persons are members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, and that men who have been discharged from the Expeditionary Forces have ceased to be members of the Expeditionary Forces, and that any attempt by regulation to include them in the poll of members of the Expeditionary Forces to be taken on April 10 next would be illegal." Sir James Allen said the Government had done all possible to try to devise some means by which even men who had failed to enrol might be allowed to vote. He regretted exceedingly the misfortune which had occurred. At the same time he thought it had been magnified a great deal.

Mr. Batten suggested that the circumstances might justify holding a special session of Parliament to deal with the matter.

Sir James Allen said he could conceive of no circumstances arising out of this matter which would justify the holding of a special session of Parliament. Sir D. Bell pointed out that the Government could not legally call Parliament together, because Parliament had already been prorogued until April 24. He spoke of the necessity of the administration not interfering with the operation of the law as affecting elections. One of the suggestions that had been made was that those men who had omitted to register might be re-enrolled as members of the Expeditionary Force and given the right to vote as soldiers, but if the Government had the right to interfere in this way it might enlist the whole community and stuff the rolls. There was nothing which was more the duty of the Government to prevent by any legal means than roll-stuffing.

WEST COASTERS' RESOLUTION. Greymoutli, Last Night. A largely attended meeting of the West Coast Returned Soldiers held here to-night passed the following resolution, which. i 3 being sent to the Acting Prime Minister: "That this Association resents the action of a section of the people to take away from us the liberty and freedom for which we have Modestly fought; that the Government be asked to approach His Excellency the Governor with a request that the hasty legislation passed late last year by Parliament should be deferred until our comrades are with us again to taJte their part in Dominion affairs, and that the licensing poll due next month be deferred until general election poll in December next, when a majority of our comrades should be back and'have tho right to join with their kindred association for the welfare of this land of liberty"