Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

DISPUTED ELECTION.
YILGARN-COOLGARDIE SEAT.
Mr. Lambert's Appeal Dismissed.
The election of Edwin Wilkie Corboy
to the Yilgarn-Coolgardie seat at the re
cent State elections was declared valid
yesterday, when Mr. Justice Dwyer, in the
Court of Disputed Returns, dismissed an
appeal by one of the defeated candidates,
George James Lambert, against the valid
ity ot the election. At the hearing of the
appeal last week, petitioner asked the Court
to determine that Corboy was not duly
elected, and that the petitioner was elect
ed; or, alternatively, that the election was
void. The petition was opposed by Cor
boy. The case resolved around the ad
mitted fact that 83 votes, which were ad
mitted by the returning officer, were cast
at the Woodline Camp school, a polling
booth situated 13J miles outside the bound
ary of the Yilgarn-Coolgardie electorate,
and iHtliin the electoral district of Ka
nowna. It was contended for the pe
titioner that there was do power under
the Electoral Act to have a polling booth
outside the electorate for which the votes
were being cast, and that the votes taken
at the Woodline Camp school, because they
were taken outside the electoral boun
daries of Yilgarn-Coolgardie, should have
been excluded by the returning officer,
and would have to lje excluded by the
Court. It was further stated that if the
83 rotes which were recorded outside the
electorate had been excluded, petitioner
would, on the final count of votes, have
obtained a majority, and would have, been
elected. Actually, Corboy was declared
elected, by four votes.
For the respondent, it was argued that
i;he votes taken at a polling booth out
side the electoral boundary were legal, and
that there was no definite specification
that polling places must be within the dis
trict concerned.'
Mr. Ross McDonald, with him Mr. T.
S. Louch (instructed by Robinson, Cox,
and Wheatley) appeared for Lambert, and
Sir Walter James, K.C., with him Mr. F.
W. Leake (instructed by Northmore, Hale,
Davy, and Leake) represented Corboy.
In the course of a long judgment, 'in
which he reviewed the common Jaw on the
subject, his Honour said that the trend
of legislation and its interpretation was
in the direction of increasing facilities for
voters, at the same time keeping adminis
trative authority within the powers con
ferred by law. He then quoted New
South Wales ajid Xew Zealand cases, in
which the Courts had decided that an
irregularity .in regard, to polling booths
could not affect the validity of an elec
tion. If the 83 votes ca6t at the .Wood
linn camp school were excluded, he pro
ceeded, 83 voters would be disfranchised
by an official irregularity. He had come
to the conclusion that, even if the ap
pointment of the Woodline camp school
as a polling place, was irregular, it was
irregular in the preliminary official Act,
and did not affect the result of the elec
tion. The election should therefore be de
clared valid, and also the inclusion of the
83 votes. While the Minister must ap
point one more polling place in the elec
torate, he was not precluded by the Stat
ute from appointing one outside the elec
torate, if he thought it was necessary. Al
though the Woodline camp school was
outside the boundaries of the electorate, it
was a convenient place for polling, having
regard to the qualified- electors in the im
mediate vicinity. The petition would
therefore be dismissed, and each party
would pay its own costs.
$