VIII. No committee, or other body organized for promoting the return of any candidate at any election, shall sit or hold meetings at any licensed public house or any building thereto annexed or belonging, and every person being a member of any such committee or organized body who shall attend any such meetings at any such public house or building shall forfeit the sum of five pounds to any person who shall sue for the same, together with full costs of suit.

IX. No poll shall be taken at any licensed public house or any building annexed or belonging thereto, and every returning officer who shall take or cause to be taken any poll at such public house or building, shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds to any person who shall sue for the same, together with full costs of suit.

X. The pecuniary penalties hereby imposed for the offences of bribery, treating, or undue influence, and for taking a poll at a licensed public house shall respectively be recoverable by suit in the Supreme Court of New Zealand, and all other penalties by this Act shall be recoverable in any inferior Court having jurisdiction to the amount claimed.

XI. Every indictment for bribery or undue influence shall be tried before the Supreme Court only, and it shall be lawful for the said Court to order payment to the prosecutor of such costs and expenses as to the said Court shall appear to have been reasonably incurred in and about the conduct of such prosecution.

XII. In case of any indictment or information by a private person, for any offence against the provisions of this Act, if judgment shall be given for the defendant, he shall be entitled to recover from the prosecutor the costs, to be taxed by the proper officer of the Court, which the defendant shall have sustained by reason of such indictment or information.

XIII. It shall not be lawful for the said Court to order payment of the costs of a prosecution for any offence against the provisions of this Act, unless the prosecutor shall, before or upon the finding of the indictment, or the granting of the information, enter into a recognizance with two sufficient sureties, to be approved of by the registrar or deputy registrar in the Supreme Court, in the sum of one hundred pounds, to be acknowledged before a judge of the Supreme Court, with the condition following; that is to say that the prosecutor shall conduct the prosecution with effect, and shall pay to the defendant or defendants, in case he or they shall be acquitted, his or their costs.

XIV. No person shall be liable to any penalty or forfeiture hereby imposed, unless some prosecution, action, or suit for the offence committed shall be commenced against such person within the space of one year next after such offence against this Act shall have been committed, and unless such person shall be summoned or otherwise served with writ or process, within the same space of time, so as such summons or service of writ or process shall not be prevented by such person absconding or withdrawing out of the jurisdiction of the Court out of which such writ or other process shall have been issued, and in case of any prosecution, suit, or process as aforesaid, the same shall be proceeded with, and carried out, without any wilful delay.

XV. If any candidate at any election for any electoral district shall be declared by any election committee, or any other tribunal appointed to try the merits of any election petition, guilty, by himself or his agents, of bribery, treating, or undue influence, such candidate shall

be incapable of sitting or being elected as a member for such district, before the next general election.

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XVI. Throughout this Act, and in the construction thereof, the word "election" shall mean the election of any member or members of the House of Representatives, the word elector" shall mean any person who shall have a right to vote at any such election; and the word "candidate" shall mean any person who shall have been nominated as required by law at any such election, or who shall have declared himself a candidate at or before any such election.

XVII. The short title of this Act shall be " Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1858."

21 & 22 Vic., No. 58.-An Act to make provision for the trial of petitions against the election or return of members of the House of Representatives. (a) [19th August, 1858.]

BE IT ENACTED by the General Assembly of New Zealand, in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. Every petition which shall be presented to the House of Representatives, complaining of an undue election, or return of a member of the House of Repre sentatives, or complaining that no return has been made to any writ issued for the election of any member of the House of Representatives, or that no return has been made within the time within which any writ is made returnable, or that any return is not according to the requisition of the writ, or complaining of any special

(a) CONTENTS:-1. What shall be deemed election petitions. 2. When election petitions shall be presented and by whom subscribed. 3. Bond to be entered into by petitioner. 4. Sureties to make affidavit of sufficiency. 5. Speaker to appoint examiner of election bonds. 6. How bonds to be entered into. 7. Bonds taken before justices of the peace to be delivered to clerk of the House. 8. Money may be paid into bank instead of security given. 9. When money deemed to be paid into bank. 10. No petition to be received unless endorsed by examiner. 11. Bonds and affidavits to be open to inspection. 12. Sureties may be objected to. 13. Examiner to appoint a day for hearing objections. 14. Examiner to decide on objections. 15. In case of insufficiency, or death of surety, money may be paid into bank. 16. How petitions may be withdrawn. 17. Elector may be admitted to defend return or oppose petition. 18. Member giving notice of his intention not to defend not to be allowed to sit, or vote, till petition decided. 19. When election petition presented, time to be fixed for taking same into consideration. 20. List to be made of members available to serve on committees. 21. Copy of list to be delivered to each party. 22. Each party to choose one member. Speaker to appoint chairman. 24. Each party to strike off names alternately of members on list, till number reduced to four. 25. Mode of proceeding in case parties fail to attend. 26. Notice of committee having been chosen, to be given to members selected. 27. Members of committee to be sworn. 28. Committee not to adjourn for more than thirty hours, without leave of the House. 29. Members absenting themselves without leave may be censured or punished. 30. If committee reduced to less than three to be dissolved. 31. Committee to regu.

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late form of proceedings. 32. Questions to be determined by majority. 33. Names of members voting for, and against any resolution, to be reported to the House. 34. Committee to be attended by a competent clerk, and minutes kept. 35. Committee empowered to send for, and examine persons, books, papers, records, and documents. 36. Persons misbehaving, to be guilty of a misdemeanour. 37. Giving false evidence to be perjury. 38. Committee to decide and report their determination to the House. 39. Committee may report their determination on other matters to the House. 40. Committee not dissolved by prorogation of General Assembly. 41. Costs may be awarded. 42. If costs not paid bond to be put in suit. 43. Costs to be paid out of money deposited in bank. 44. Returning officer may be sued for neglecting to return any person duly elected. 45. Interpretation. 46. Short title.

matters contained in any such return, shall be deemed an election petition. (a) II. Every election petition shall be presented to the House within such time as shall be from time to time limited by the House in that behalf; and no such petition shall be received, unless, at the time it is presented, it shall have been subscribed by an elector, who had a right to vote at the election to which the same shall relate, or by some person who had been a candidate at such election.(a) III. Before any election petition shall be presented to the House, the person or persons subscribing the same, or some one or more of them, shall enter into a bond to the Speaker of the House, with a condition, in the form set forth in the schedule to this Act, for the sum of £100, with one, two, three, or four sufficient sureties, either in the same bond or in separate bonds, for the additional sum of £100, in a sum or sums of not less than £25 each, for the payment of the costs and expenses, in the said bond specified. (b)

IV. Every such person who shall enter into any such bond, as surety for any other person, shall testify upon oath in writing, to be sworn at the time of entering into such bond, and before the person by whom his boud shall be taken, that he is seized or possessed of real or personal estate, or both, above what will satisfy his debts of the clear value of the sum for which he shall be bound by the said bond, and every such affidavit shall be annexed to the bond; and in every such bond shall be mentioned the names and usual places of residence of the persons becoming sureties as aforesaid, with such other descriptions of the sureties, as may be sufficient to identify them readily.

V. The Speaker shall from time to time, as occasion shall require, appoint the clerk of the House, or some other person, to be examiner of election bonds, and every person so appointed shall hold his office during the pleasure of the Speaker.

VI. Every bond hereinbefore required shall be entered into, and every affidavit hereinbefore required shall be sworn, before the examiner, or one of Her Majesty's justices of the peace; and the examiner, and also every justice of the peace, is hereby authorised to administer the same.

VII. Every such bond and affidavit which shall be taken before a justice of the peace, being duly certified under the hand of such justice, shall be delivered or transmitted to the clerk of the House. (c)

VIII. It shall be lawful for any person by whom such petition shall be signed, instead of entering into a bond with sureties for the full amount of the sums hereinbefore required, to pay into a bank to be designated by the examiner, and in his name as trustee for like purposes for which the bond is hereinbefore required, any amount of money which such person shall think fit, in a sum or sums not less than £25 each; and in such case, the person by whom the petition shall be signed shall still be required to enter into his personal bond for the sum of £100, but shall be required to find a surety or sureties as aforesaid for so much only of the additional sum of £100 as the sum paid into the bank shall fall short of the sum of £100.

IX. No money shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to be paid into the bank, until a bank receipt shall have been delivered to the examiner.

X. No election petition shall be received, unless at the time it is presented to the House it shall be endorsed by a certificate, under the hand of the examiner, that the bond herein before required has been

(a) Repealed by sec. 1, 26 Vic., No. 4, the "Election Petitions Act Amendment Act, 1862."

(b) Repealed by sec. 3, 26 Vic., No. 4, the "Election Petitions Act Amendment Act, 1862."

(c) Repealed by sec. 4, 26 Vic. No. 4, the "Election Petitions Act Amendment Act, 1862."

OF REPRESENTATIVES).

entered into and received by him, with the affidavit thereto annexed;
and if the bond shall not have been taken for the full amount, that the
necessary amount has been paid into a bank as herein before required.

XI. On or before the day when any petition shall be presented to
the House, the bonds and affidavits, and bank receipts (if any) shall be
opened to the inspection of all parties concerned.

XII. It shall be lawful for any sitting member petitioned against, or for any electors petitioning and admitted parties to defend the election or return, to object to the sureties, or any of them, who shall have entered into such bond on the ground of insufficiency, or that a surety is dead, or cannot be found, from the want of a sufficient description in the bond, or that a person named in the bond has not duly executed the same: Provided that the ground of objection shall be stated in writing, under the hand of the objecting party or his agent, and shall be delivered to the examiner before twelve o'clock at noon on the tenth day after the presentation of the petition, and if such tenth day be Sunday, Christmas Day, or Good Friday, then before twelve o'clock at noon on the following day.

XIII. As soon as any such statement shall be received by the examiner, he shall appoint a day for hearing such objection, not less than three nor more than five days from the day on which he shall have received such statement, and the petitioner and his agent shall be allowed to examine and take copies of every such statement.

XIV. At the time appointed, the examiner shall enquire into the alleged insufficiency of the sureties objected to, on the grounds stated in the notice of objection, but on no other grounds; and for the purpose of such enquiry, the examiner is hereby required to examine upon oath any persons who may be tendered by either party for examination by him; and also to receive in evidence any affidavit relating to the matter in dispute before him, which shall be sworn before him, or before a justice of the peace, each of whom is hereby authorised and required to take and certify such affidavit; and the examiner shall have power, if he shall think fit, to adjourn the enquiry from time to time, until he shall decide on the validity of such objection, and, if he shall think fit, to award costs to be paid by either party to the other, and to give a certificate thereof, which costs shall be recovered in an action of debt in any court of competent jurisdiction; and the decision of the examiner shall be final and conclusive against all parties: Provided always, that the validity of such certificate (the handwriting of the examiner thereto being duly verified) shall not be called in question in any Court.

XV. If the examiner shall have decided that any such surety is objectionable, or if any surety shall die, and his death shall be stated as a ground of objection before the end of the time allowed for objecting to the sureties, it shall be lawful for the petitioner to pay into a bank to be designated by the examiner, and in his name, the sum for which the deceased surety was bound, and on delivery of a bank receipt for such sum to the examiner, within three days after the day on which the statement of such objection shall have been delivered to the examiner, the sureties shall be deemed unobjectionable, if no ground of objection shall be stated to any other of the sureties, within the time before mentioned for stating objections to sureties.

XVI. It shall be competent to any petitioner, at any time after the presentation of the petition, to withdraw the same upon giving notice in writing under his hand, or under the hand of his agent, to the speaker, and also to the sitting member, or his agent, and also to any

party who may have been admitted to oppose the prayer of such petition, that it is not intended to proceed with the petition, and in such case the petitioner shall be liable to the payment of such costs and expenses as may have been incurred by the sitting member, and also by any party who may have been admitted to oppose the prayer of such petition; such costs and expenses to be ascertained and fixed in such manner and by such person as the speaker shall direct, and the same being so ascertained and fixed, the speaker shall give a certificate thereof, whereupon the same shall be recoverable in any Court of competent jurisdiction; and the validity of such certificate (the handwriting of the speaker thereto being duly verified) shall not be called in question in any Court.

XVII. If at any time after such election petition shall have been presented, the member petitioned against shall declare in writing to the Speaker that he will not defend his election or return (notice whereof shall be given by the Speaker in such manner as he shall deem best calculated to give full publicity to the same) it shall be lawful for any person having a right to vote at any election to which such petition shall relate, at any time within ten days after the publication of such notice, to petition the House to be permitted to defend such return, or oppose the prayer of such petition, and such person shall thereupon be admitted to defend or oppose the same respectively.

XVIII. Whenever any member, whose election or return is so complained of in such petition, shall have given notice as aforesaid of his intention not to defend the same, he shall not afterwards be allowed to appear or act as a party against such petition in any proceedings thereon; and he shall not be entitled to sit in the House, or vote on any question, until such petition shall have been decided on.

XIX. Whenever any election petition shall have been presented to the House, a day and hour shall be appointed by the House for the selection of a committee to try the allegations therein contained, and notice thereof in writing shall be given by the Speaker to the petitioners and the sitting member, or to the person who may have been admitted to defend the return or oppose the prayer of the petition, or to their agents, accompanied by an order to attend the House at the time appointed.

XX. At the time appointed the Speaker shall cause to be made out a list containing the names of all the members of the House, excepting only those of the Speaker and the Chairman of Committees and such members as have obtained leave of absence, or are not available for service on the committee through illness or absence, or from such other cause as the House, on the question being referred to them by the Speaker, shall determine to be sufficient excuse for not serving on the committee.

XXI. The Speaker shall cause to be delivered to each party a copy of the list so to be made out as aforesaid.

XXII. Each party shall then name one member whose name shall be on the said list, and the two members so named shall be two members of the committee.

XXIII. The Speaker shall then appoint some one of the other members on the said list to be the chairman of the committee; and in case at any time any chairman shall from any cause cease to act on the committee, the Speaker shall appoint some other member of the committee to be the chairman thereof.

XXIV. Each party, the petitioners commencing, shall then alternately strike off one name from the said list till the number thereon