ELECTION PETITION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1939, Page 9

ELECTION PETITION

WITHDRAWAL IN BAY OF ISLANDS REFERENCE TO TREMENDOUS EXPENDITURE. COURT SITS AT KAIKOHE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WHANGARF.I, January 19. Suggestions that the petitioners were forced by the Court to withdraw their petition, as the Court refused to grant postponements, were repudiated by the Chief Justice (Sir M. Myers), presiding over an Election Court at Kaikohe today, when leave to withdraw the petition against the return of Mr C. W. Boswell was granted. Sir M. Myers pointed out that the whole position had been explained both to him and to Mr Justice Blair at Wellington. It was then indicated that when the matter was discussed at an Election Court sitting, an opportunity would be given for postponement of the hearing in order that further evidence might be secured. The petitioners' Wellington representative considered that this was a sound proposal. Outlining the reasons for desiring a withdrawal, Mr W. C. Wylie said the petitioners did not think the tremendous expenditure warranted. After the election, it was estimated that 300 persons voted in the Bay of Islands without right, and the petitioners believed that these votes, properly treated, would turn the result of the election, Mr Boswell’s majority being 163. Referring to reports of irregularities in another electorate, Mr Wylie said it appeared that something was wrong. Abuses should not be allowed to occur and publicity was thought desirable. The lodgment of the petition had a wider implication than the winning of the Bay of Islands seat. Speaking of expenses, Mr Wylie said that tracing the ancestry of Maoris for four generations was involved in some cases, while Dominion-wide inquiries were also necessary with respect to 40 Europeans said to have lost the franchise in Bay of Islands. No objection to the withdrawal was lodged by Mr D. L. Ross, for respondents.

To fulfil the formalities of the statute, Mr Wylie assured the Chief Justice that no corrupt arrangement was involved. Messrs Wylie and Ross agreed that 20 guineas and disbursements should be paid by petitioners to respondents.