j The total number of informal votes in the city licensing election was 1207 with regard to the committee, and 1320 with regard to local option. During the licensing elections, the women’s votes in one district in Southland were kept distinct from those of the men, the ballot-papers given to men bore only one impression of the official stamp ; those handed to women had two. How far does this agree with the Electoral Act ? The Wakatipu local option poll is in favour of the present number of licenses. The Wakatipu local option poll is void. The cost of the licensing election in Christchurch -was .£147 13s Id. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Among the conflicting if not be wildering actions of the several returning officers throughout the Colony, that of Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts commends itself to my judgment as being more in accord with the Act. He very properly, I think, insists that a majority means of the votes polled, not merely as other Returning Officers hold, the excess of one class of votes over another, and he admits in formal votes in making up the count for the poll. Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts, being a Magistrate of long-standing, I as sume his judgment on the interpretation of a difficult statute is more reliable than the average of returning officers, and therefore I commend it to the Committee of the Anti-Prohibitionists, for if he is correct, then the verdict of Mr James, the Return ing Officer for Wellington City, in refusing to count the informal votes must be incor rect which, if counted in the poll, would give the victory to the no-reductioniste.
