THE LATE ELECTION.

Thames Star, Issue XI, 25 November 1880, Page 3

THE LATE ELECTION.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib,—l believe it will be found that Mr Wilkinson is not duly elected Mayor of Thames, on the following grounds :— Section 52 of the Municipal Corporation Act reads as follows: Every candidate for the office of Mayor shall at the time of his nomination, deposit with the Returning Officer the siim of ten pounds. Mr Wilkinson did not do so, I was present, when his nomination was handed to the Returning Officer by his bookkeeper, with a crossed cheque for £10, hot such piece of paper was not the " sum of teri pounds." I think the Act required that the candidate shall deposit such sum personally and that he can no more make that deposit through his agent than he can make the declaration required by the next section of the' Act by an agent. Another reason I will submit is this: The Returning Officer had no power to refuse to receive, to alter, or to get altered any nomination paper tendered to him. I was sitting in the Borough offices when Mr Wilkinson's book keeper gave the Returning Officer Mr Wilkinson's nomination paper and cheque. The Returning Officer, instead of receiving the nomination paper without any remark, pointed out to Mr Wilkinson's agent that it was informal, illegal, and not in accordance with the Act, and advised or requested him to take it back and alter it, which he did. I think this last objection must convince any impartial person that an irregularity occurred in the proceedings that tended to defeat the fairness of the election (section 50 of "Regulation of Local Elections"), because if Mr Wilkinson's nomination was'illegal or bad from any cause, then if the Returning Officer had not exceeded his duty by taking one candidate's part and having it made correct. ■Mr Brassey being the only one duly nominated, must have been declared Mayor, I consider the nbri deposit of ten pounds in money by Mr Wilkinson upset the) election under the next section of the same Act of Parliament, viz, " That the nomination of any candidate was not given within the time or in the manner required." —I am, &c, . Faib Putt.