CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE SCRUTINY OF THE ELECTORAL ROLLS OF THE SEVERAL DISTRICTS IN THE COLONY.

Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives, 1856 Session I

1 856.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE SCRUTINY OF THE ELECTORAL ROLLS OF THE SEVERAL DISTRICTS IN THE COLONY.

on the table of the House, July 18 th, 1856, and ordered to be printed.)

House of Representatives, Auckland, August 30th, ]855. Sir,—l have the honor herewith to forward to your Excellency, a copy of a Resolution (No. 3l), passed this day by the House of Representatives. ' v I have, &c., Chas. Clifford, Speaker. His Excellency the Officer administering the Government. &c., &c., &c. Extract from the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives. Auckland, August 30th, 1855. Resolved,—That in order to enable the House, in its next session,, to ascertain whether the Representation be fairly apportioned among the various Provinces, his Excellency the Ofhcei administering the Government be respectfully requested to place upon the Estimates such a sum as mav be deemed sufficient to enable the Executive Government to appoint fit and proper persons to scrutinise the electoral rolls of the several districts, and in particular trf report the number ot bona fide electors, irrespective of the existing electoral rolls ; and also to furnish rough out ine maps of the present electoral districts, together with comparative returns of Population, Kevenue, Imports and Exports, and extent of acreage of the several Provinces. True Extract (Signed) Chas. Clifford, Speaker. . (Circular.) Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 22nd November, 1855. Sir,—l am directed by his Excellency the Governor to transmit to you herewith a copy ot a Resolution passed by the House of Representatives, of the 30th August 1855 (No, anc o

A—No. 9.

2

request you to report what means yau <rould recommend to be adopted to carry the object of this Resolution into effect, I have, &c., (Signed) Andrew Sinclair, Colonial Secretary. His Honor the Superintendent of Superintendent's Office, Auckland, December 3rd, 1855. Sir, —I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter No. 378, of the 22nd ultimo, with its enclosure, and to inform you that the suggestions therein contained shall have my full consideration. I have, &c., (Signed) J. Logan Campbell, The Honorable Superintendent. the Colonial Secretary, -TT—. IT??— Superintendent's Office, Auckland, December 17th, 1855, Sir, With reference to your letter of the 22nd ultimo, requesting me to report what means I would recommend to be adopted to carry the object of an enclosed Resolution of the House of epresentatives into effect, and also to my reply ot the 3rd instant, informing you that the matter t> loukl have my fulj consideration j 1 Lave the honor to recommend that the Executive should comp y with the recommendation of the House, by appointing fit and proper persons to scrutinize the i. ectoral Roll of the several districts, and in particular to report the number of bona fide electors, II icspective of the existing electoral rolls ; and also to furnish rough outline maps of the present i ectoral districts, together with comparative returns of Population, Revenue, Imports and Exports, and extent of acreage of the several Provinces. I have to request that the information thus obtained may be presently communicated to me, in ok (r to place me in the position of being able to offer to his Excellency the Governor, matured suggestions on the subject. I have, &c., (Signed) J. Logan Casipjsell, The Honorable Superintendent, the Colonial Secretary. Superintendent's Office, New Plymouth, 3rd January, 1806. Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch (No. 330) of the 22nd i ovember, 1856, enclosing a resolution passed by the House of Representatives on the 30th August, No. 31, and requesting me by direction pf his Excellency the Goyernpr, to report what means I would recommend to be adopted to carry the phject of the resolution into effect. I lie great difficulty seems tp me, the want pf a gpneral enactment under which the in urination required might be obtained on one uniform plan j lean suggest but one pourse of meeting this difficulty, that of recommending to the Superintendent of each Province the saine i iultof a Provincial Ordinance, tp be submitted to the Loc#l Legislatures, giving the-General Government the necessary authority for obtaining by its own officers the information required by the resolution referred to; this I poncsjve, at the same time obviate objections that might otherwise be raised in the House of Representatives at results obtained through the Governments of the several Provinces. X have, &c., (Signed) Chas. Beown, Superintendent. The Honorable the Colonial Secretary. Superintendent's Ofifipe, Nelson, Jannary 11, Ibafii. _ Sir, —In reply to a despatch from the Colonial Secretary, of the 22nd of November last, en-i closing a resolution of the House of Representatives, on the subject of a, sciutiny of the Electoral

3

Rolls; I have the honor to state that, m the of any properly constituted machinery for conducting such scrutiny, the object of the resolution ffighjbe carried out by the appointment of persons competent from their local knowledge tp revise t}?e claims to vpfp actually received, as a|so to add thereto the names of persons entitled to vote, but who may have omitted to prefer a claim- ouch a scrutiny would, however, always be more or less open to suspicipn frovu its secret character, as well as from the fact that there was no provision to ensure due dilligence on the part of the scrutineer. 1 Should his Excellency be disposed to make any t such appointment in this Province, I would repojrimepd that Mr. John Sharp, the Registrar of the Supr,eipe Court and Clerk tp the Resident Magistrate, be appointed. For many years, the making up of the Jury and Militia Lists, as well as tlie formation of the existing Electoral Rolls, has gone through his hands, and from the general knowledge he otherwise possesses with respect to the population and statistics of thp Province, and the discretion and dilligence which guides him in the perfprmanpes of publip duties, I believe him to be well fitted for such an office. In consideration of the time, trouble, and expense incurred in acquiring the necessary information, I woujd also recommend that a sum of fifty pounds be allowed for the performance of the duties required. I haye, &c., (Signed) E. W. Stafford, W. Gisborne, Esq., Superintendent. Acting Colonial Secretary. Superintendent's Office, Christchurch, February Bth, 1855. have the honQr to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 22nd November, contmnmg a copy of a Resolution of the house of Representatives on the subject of the Electoral Rolls of the Provinces. ' I beg, in reply, to state that I am n.ot prepared to recommend any means to carry the Re.soLilion of the House of Representatives into effect. I would respectfully submit, that tne question involved is one of great political importance, which pjight tp be dealt with by Act pf the General ssembly, not by a resolution of the Lower tloijse only ; any advice giyen to his Excellency oug t to come fiom the Executive Council of the Colony, not from the Superintendents of Provinces. " 1 v-j ■ i - iiis Excellency will therefore pardon nie fqr pjost respectfully declining to make any report on the matter referred to. " ' *" ' ' >lf J h?ve, &c., .p. (Signed) James Edward Fitrgerald, Hie Honorable Superintendent of Canteibury. the Colonial Secretary. Superintendent's Office, Wellington, 18th February, 1856. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd November last, transmitting by direction of his txcellency the Governor a copy of a Resolution passed by the House 0 Representatives relative to the apportionment of the Representation among the different Provinces, and requesting that I would report what means I would recommend to be adopted to carry out the object of such Resolution. Ihe resolution purposes, Ist; the appointment of fit and proper persons to scrutinize the Electoral oils of the several districts ; 2nd; a return of the number of bona fide electors irrespective of the existing rolls ; 3rd, the preparation of outline inaps of the present electoral districts ; and 4th, Comparative returns of Population, Revenue, Imports and Exports, and extent of acreage of the several Provinces. v,' regards the appointment of Scrutineers of the existing roll, such a course would, I apprehend impose a very delicate responsibility on the Executive Government. The office would Cr "J 0131 materially from that of Revising Barristers in England, the latter merely constituting a nr Una f°i C e( i lt pon objections tendered by private individuals; while the duty of the Scrutineers p oposed by the resolution would be that of raising objections, and then deciding on the objections 1 iset >y themselves, a duty of an inquisitorial character, and one which it may be questioned whether any Government acting under free institutions ought to be called upon to execute. The provisions for preparing the Electoral Roll now in force, impose the duty of objecting on the Elep-

4

tors themselves who it may be supposed, acting on that party antagonism which is the life of selfgovernment, will always be ready and anxious (as is seen to be the case in older communities) o expunge from the Roll every vote improperly placed upon it. It may be questioned whether the names of many voters have been placed on the Roll in New Zealand which were not in the first instance entitled to be upon it. Some may, no doubt, have ® in £ e become disqualified by loss of qualification for the district in which they have registered, ant t e Roll may also be improperly swelled by the names of deceased persons remaining upon it. 1 e purification of the Roll from either class can, I conceive, only be effected with propriety by pnvate persons, for whose exertions every facility ought to be and indeed is afforded by the regulations in force lor the framing of the Roll; but as regards claims avoided by death, the Registrars of the se\ era Provinces might, for the information of the Government, be required to check the Rolls by reference to their Registers, and to report the names of parties believed to be dead, and the Justices of t e Peace on the day of revising the Electoral Roll, might be instructed to strike off the names of a those to whose death the Registrar certified. Statements have been circulated by the Press to the effect that the Roll of this Province is very incorrect, and statistics have been adduced to show that a stated number of voters in this or that district have become disqualified. I believe that it will prove that in many of the instances intended to be adduced in proof of these statements, probably in nearly all except the deaths, the parties have only changed their residence, in some cases to other Provinces, in others perhaps have left the Colony either temporally or permanently, but retaining the qualification in respect of which they were registered. None of these, however, his Excellency will recollect, are grounds of disqualification ; death and loss of the property conferring the qualification (not to mention a few exceptional cases, such as commission of felony, etc., being the only causes for which a name once placed upon the roll can be removed. I doubt also whether parties qualified by local knowledge could be found, willing to take upon themselves the proposed office of Scrutineers, and in any case it would, I conceive, involve a very considerable expense. 2. A Return of the number of bona fide Electors can he best effected in the course of taking the census in each Province; it has already been done in this. 3. The maps of the Electoral Districts can easily be prepared at the different land offices, by reference to the limits of the Electoral Districts as defined by Sir George Grey's Proclamation of the sth March, 1853. 4. The comparative Returns of Population, &c., are, I presume, either in the offices ot the General Government, or could be easily compiled from documents already transmitted to it by the several Provincial Governments. I have, &c., (Signed) J. E. Featherston, Superintendent, The Honorable the Colonial Secretary.