THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1891. THE ELECTION PETITION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2160, 7 February 1891, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1891. THE ELECTION PETITION.

The result of the trial of the election petition, in which Mr McGrreggor tried to upset the election of Mr Joyce, will be received with gladness by the majority of the people of this colony. It is very well kuown that Mr McGrreggor was only a cat's paw im the matter, and that there were othera pulling the Btrings behind the scenes, who will bow have to pull their purse strings wide open to pay the costs. If Mr Joyce had been unseated it would have been a great wrong. The errors committed were not errors of his ; they were errors of the returning officer, and it is a cruelly wrong state of the law when the elected of the people has to hear not only his own and bis followers' sins but also the sins of the retnrning officer. Yet such is the state of the law at present, and it is most extraordinary that it has not been amended long ago. Several years ago the election of Mr Wason for Ashburton was upset on somewhat similar grounds : the returning officer made a mistake, and Mr Wason was not only unseated but he had also to pay about £7OO costs. And yet with this decision staring Parliament in tbe face, and with the knowledge that members are liable to pay such heavy penalties as these, the law still remains unaltered. This certainly is not right. It is right and proper to make Parliamentary candidates liable for the acts of their agents, but it is monstrous to render them liable for the errors of the returning officer, who is a government employe, and beyond the control of candidates. This law ought to be altered at ooce, and as Mr Joyce's case has now directed attention to it we hope it will. The grounds on which Mr McGregor petitioned to unseat Mr Joyce were that the returning officer mistook his instructions, and shut up some of the polling booths sooner than he ought te have done. The law provides that polling booths in boroughs must be kept open till 7 p.m., while booths in the rural districts ranst close at 6 p.m. The constituency for which Mr Joyce has been elected is halt rural and half borough. It includes the boroughs of Lyttelton and Akaroa, and the country districts in their vicinity. The returning officer kept the polling booths in the boroughs open till 7 p.m , and shut the rural polling booths up at six, whereas he ought to have regarded them as part of the borough, and kept all polling booths open accordingly till 7 o'clock. On the ground that owing to the too early closing of the rural polling booths several electors were debarred from voting for him Mr McGreggor petitioned to unseat Mr Joyce, but has failed, and we believe that most people will be glac 1 of it. Mr McGreggor failed to prove that men were debarred from voting, and consequently losb bis case. Now, it is very well known that this was a part of the nobbling which has been going on since the fifth of December last, and that Mr McGrreggor would never have taken the 'case up only for that there were others behind him. They thought if they could upset the election the plural voters of Christchurch would flock down to Lyttelton and put in Mr McGrreggor, and thus lessen the strength of the Liberal party. We are glad their attempt at thwarting the wishes at the people has miscarried, and that the Liberal member still retains his sest in spite of them. Three years ago Mr Bryce tried the same thing and failed, and it is possible that the lessons they have thus received will prevent the Tories from being in the same hurry to try it again. We hope that before next election the law will be so altered as to render members irresponsible for the negligence or mistakes of returning officers in future.