The New Electoral Act.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3524, 12 April 1880, Page 2

The New Electoral Act.

MEETING OF THAMES ELECTORS.

A meeting of the electors of this constituency, convened by His Worship the Mayor, was held at the Theatre Royal on Saturday evening. The business was for the purpose of taking stepi to place on the Electoral 801 l the names of all qualified residents. There were about 200 persons present. , On the motion of Mr W. McCullough, seconded by Mr Farrell, His Worship the Mayor, L. Ehrenfried, Esq., was called on to preside. The Chairman, after reading the advertisement convening the meeting, said no doubt they would all agree with him that it was very necessary to call the electors together, for the purpose of pointing out in which way the new Electoral Act, 1879, passed last session, and which was now in force, differed from the old act. In the first place it. differed in this way : Under the old act it was the duty of Town Clerks and Secretaries to other local bodies to send to the '.Registration Officer a list of those in their respective districts entitled to be placed on the roll. This principle of the law was now altered. It was now the duty of all entitled to vote to go to the Registration Officer and have their names placed on the roll. The necessary qualifications which entitled a man to be placed on the new roll were— First, the residential qualification, by which 12 months' residence in the colony or six months in the electoral district fully entitled a man to have his name on the roll. Another qualification was the freehold qualification, which gave the franchise to anyone possessing land to the value of £25. Their object to-night was not to go into the merits of the Act, but to have placed on the roll the names of all those who were entitled to be there. On a roll like that of the Thames, with so many names on it, it was impossible for the Registration Officer to fulfil his duties completely unaided. Many of the electors on the old roll he was unacquainted with, or did not know their occupation, which it was necessary should be stated on the new roll. It would thus be seen that it would be impossible for ! that official unassisted to put the roll in an efficient state. On the present roll there were a great many who were entitled to be placed on but had changed their place of residence. The Registrar not knowing that, it would be his duty to strike off these names, but with their assistance many a one will not be deprived !of his vote. They must take into con* sideration that the Thames was the largest electoral district in the colony by the roll now in force, and was by it entitled to three members. By the causes he had named, unless the Registrar was assisted, the number would be reduced to nearly half, so that they would scarcely be entitled to two. He, believed that if all those who were really entitled to a vote were placed on, the roll would lose none of its number, and would be really a good roll. He had invited Mr Allom, the Registration officer to be present that evening, but he excused himself, being a government officer, and the present, Ministry did not wish Government officials to mix themselves in politics. He had received a letter from Mr Allom, which he would read them : - Aiy dear Sir, —The rules of the Civil Service prevents me from complying with your request to attend the the meeting you have called for this evening. At the same time lam glad to see that your object, viz., that of perfecting the new electoral roll, will greatly assist me in the discharge of my duties. T?he new .Registration of Electors' Act requires me to form a new roll, which will come into force on the Ist May next, by placing thereon the names of all qualified persons, and who are on the present roll. But to identify some 4,500 electors whose names are on a roll notoriously incorrect, and to ascertain within the period limited their places of i residence (which have been repeatedly changed in many cases) and their occupation, unassisted by the electors I themselves, is a manifest impossibility. It is a matter of certainty that the new roil will be much reduced in numbers by the omission of the names of those who are dead, or who have left the district, or who cannot be identified. But on the other hand there are many others who are qualified to take their places if we can only get hold of them. Should I leave out many names, as is probable, from mere want of the necessary information, they can be placed on the roll at any time the omission is pointed out. I trust, however, that the electors will see the importance of coming forward and identifying themselves to me personally if resident here, or of furnishing me with new claims to vote if residents at a distance. I would also call your attention to the fact that the new electoral roll requires that the occupation of each elector should be stated, whilst that now in force gives no such information. This is one cause of the difficulty in now identifying persons who have changed their places of residence, and who are often of the same name.—l am, &c, Albert J. Aiiom, Parawai. (Seeing the difficulty the Registration Officer had to grasp, he saw no other way but to call them together to devise means for putting the roll in an efficient state, and he believed if the matter was gone into properly after the Ist of May the Thames would possess a good and proper roll.

Mr Quint, evidently referring to one of the local bodes, said that he had been I placed on the defaulters' list, though he had always paid his rates. The Chairman assured Mr Quint that this would not affect his electoral privileges, his length of residence in the district alone entitling him to a vote. In answer to loud calls Mr W. J. i Speight, M.H.R., addressed the meeting. | He said before entering into the merits of the case he felt an explanation due to them in consequence of two advertise* ments, one by His Worship, calling this meeting, and another signed by himself calling one for Monday night. Ever since last session of Parliament this matter had given him much concern. Some person resident in this district thought proper to state to the present Prime Minister that the Thames roll was a rotten one, and the head of the Government, in the course of a debate, asserted ihat pur roll was stuffed with absentees and dead men. As a resident of the district be had been J5

troubled by this statement for some time. Amongst them he knew there were many who would not take the trouble to sign a piece of paper, entitling to exercise one of their most important privileges, and con- ; sequently feared that the roll this year would not be nearly so large as last year's. He saw no one moving in the i matter, and with such thoughts as these he was moved late on Friday night, and he wrote out theadvertisement which appeared in Saturday's Advertiser, convening a meeting to consider what steps should be taken to make the Thames roll as complete as possible. He was somewhat astonished on Saturday at seeing side by side with bis own an advertisement signed by the Mayor convening this meeting. Notwithstanding all the loud talk that had taken place lately, he held there were dearer things than the consideration of private matters, and so when he found that another had taken the matter up he determined to clear out without interfering with the object in view, and go hand in hand and endeavour to secure its accomplishment. (Cheers.) In consequence of this meeting, the meeting convened by himself would not take place. With regard to what the Mayor had said, he might state that His Worship had slightly—very slightly—misconstrued the meaning of the Act. He was right in his'explanation of the freehold qualification, but with regard to the residential qualification, a man had to be a resident in the colony for twelve months, and in the electoral district for six months before he was entitled to the franchise. A Maori could get on the white roll provided he was a ratepayer or the holder of an individual crown grant for £25, and he had also a vote for the Maori member. The people of the Thames were notorions for one or two things. The cause of charity had always been taken up with zeal, and he maintained that the point at issue equalled the cause of charity. It was of the most vital importance and they [should show that they were an important constituency with a good voting power. The movement was entirely apart from party, or for the aggrandisement of one particular person but for the welfare of the district. The course he had sketched out was something like, this. They should first affirm the desirability of making an effort to place every qualified person on the roll, and endeavor to present^ clear good roll—* a list of genuine electors and notjdead men. Probably during the next session of Parlia- | mentor the one after that a redistribution of seats would take place, and it was absolutely necessary they should know what number of votes could-be cast into the ballot box. He asked them if they did not think they had not a right to a roll of at least 5000 names ? Let them just consider the changes made in the law. The leasehold qualification was struck out, but the loss was made up in other ways. Every man of the age of 21 years, and was not an alien, nor had been in goal for 12 months, was entitled to a vote by virtue of his manhood, pro* vided be had been in the colony 12 months prior to the compilation of the roll, and six months resident in the district. He thought with this power of expansion they should have no difficulty in swelling the roll to 5,000. To accomplish this he had proposd a large committee of all classes and shades of political opinion, for the purpose of revising the present roll and placing all those on the new one who were entitled to be there. The. committee could distribute registration forms amongst the different hotels, boarding houses, mine managers, employers of labor etc., and they could be filled in and deposited with Mr Allom. The whole thing could be done without money if 100 men would recognise the the gravity of the matter and do something to assist, and they would possess a roll that would astonish the Government. He then moved, " That it is the opinion of this meeting that an organised effort should be made to place upon the new electoral roll of this district, any person who is qualified under the new law to be placed thereon; and that for this purpose a committee be appointed, whose duty it shall be to canvas the district and have the names sent in to the Begistrar." He trusted everyone would work enthusiastically, and assured them if they were not successful, such a mess would be made of the district that they would be the laughing stock of the colony for some time to come. There was a desire on the part of some people to see a small roll brought up from the Thames, and nothing would give them greater pleasure than to throw it up in our teeth. (Name, name.) It was not necessary to mention names. Anyone reading the public prints would know what he meant. (Loud applause.) The motion was seconded by Mr B. Farrell, who briefly alluded to the apathy of the public in the all important matter of registering. Mr Lang and Mr Adam Porter briefly supported the motion which was carried unanimously. Mr Porter then moved the following gentlemen as a committee: —Messrs Ehrenfried, Brodie, McCullough, Wilkinson, Long, Craig, Hart, Harcourt. J. Wilson, Speight, Porter, S. Stephenson, McAndrew, Thompson, H. T. Bowe, Small, B. Farrell, Carpenter, Bagnall, J. Brown, Bawden, the clerks of the local bodies and mine managers (Thames), Cadman, Harrison, and Woolams (Coro^ mandel); Sieedman (Waikawau); Hawkes (Tapu Creek); Banks (Tairua); C. F. Mitchell and C. A. Comes (Ohinemuri). This was seconded by Mr MoCullough, and carried.

A rote of thanks to the Chairman brought the proceedings to a close.