"The Committee has held six meetings at which all members and the
the "count d ff were present.
e ity Treasurer-Revenue m Commissioner General
to departure from Shang-idea on, M N. F. Allman re-ti report were under the conclusions ar-the Council to fill the vacancy thus created, We wish to take this tunity of expressing
assistance gi y, Allman dur-mim of he aävica and ing his d of ip. pointed out to us by ud T cen missioner. he recom-agreed upon by the Council' y are to be apt election, it was de-cover lom-"em "ect (tee. with the intimation that a further report will be submitted at a later date.
"1, Of our first meeting we were supplied with a memorandum by the Secretary and Commissioner General Covering a report by the Deputy Treasurer-Revenue in which certain suggestions were submitted for our consideration, The Secretary and Commissioner General's memorandum stated that the present Election Rules dated March 17, 1938, covering the conduct of elections and counting of votes, were drawn up in accordance with the recommendations of the Election Investigation Committee of 1036 with one important exception, pomely the fixing of a date prior to elections after which no claims to vote would be received, which int is covered later in this report.
time at the 1940 election and, apart reles were tested for the Arst from the point referred to above, were stated to have proved extremely satisfactory. The poll was conducted smoothly and efficiently and the machinery for counting votes appeared to work well, Experience at the election had however shown that certain minor changes were necessary and these changes, recommended by the Deputy Treasurer-Revenue and the Secretary and Commissioner General, were endorsed by the Committee for adoption, They are:—"(a) That duplicate Voting Passes be valid only at the polling stations at which they are issued or for which they' are so stamped.
"(b) That such number of em-polling station as may be required bossing machines be provided at each
instead of one machine at each station, "(c) That provision be made for the officials to hand over the ballot boxes to the Scrutineers immediately on the close of the poll on the first day of the election instead of waiting until the official! returns are made up as ted in the Rules, t provision be made for the Scrutineers to witness the seal of the apertures in the ballot bones at the close of the poll on each day of the election, "2. In his memorandum the Secretary and Commissioner General pointed out that the conduct of an election im s (we entirely separate stages (a) the compilation of the Voting List and (b) the conduct of the election itself which involves 3 and Deputy Treasurernection with (b) have been covered hue's recommendations in 4
above, and @ommissioner General stated "Witi to (a) the Secreta that under Land Regulation XIX there are two principal] qualifications for yote ie. the landowners'
cation and the householders'
Landowners "In regard to landowners there was said to be no difficulty as notice of the acquisition of land by foreigners and change of ownership respectively is given by the Consulates concerned to the Council. AN that the Council's officials are required to do is to keep the V-tiny List up-to-date in accordance with the official notifications received from. the Consulates.
Council by the Special Election in a report of the Committee *8, Mr. Yasui proposed that neither landowners nor householders shall be qualified to vote unless their taxes to the end of December of the year previous to the election are fully paid prior to a fixed date.
"We were informed that the existing practice. is to allow votes to landowners and householders in respect of land acquired or premises occupied during the previous year or before and still in their possession or occupation, provided the Land Tax or General Municipal Rate respectively thereon had been paid up to December 31 of the previous year. Persons acquiring land on or after January 1 of the year of the election were regarded as qualified to vote provided the Land Tax on the land in respect of which the vote was given had been paid up to December 31 of the previous year, although the Land Tax for the first' half year of the election may not have been paid. Persons occupying premises on and after January 1 of the year of the election were given a vote provided the General Municipal Rate thereon had been paid for the first quarter of the year in which the election is held, "While good reasons were adduced in support of this divergent treatment of landowners and householders who acquired qualifications on and after January 1 of the year of the election, and although the existing
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.