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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 568, 10 February 1891, Page 2

THE dismissal of the petition in the Akaroa election, to unseat Mi Joyce, will be viewed with mixed feelings, but the general feeling will be one of satisfaction Where corruption is shown to exist there can be no sympathy al all with the can* tllrtaie t if there ishot sufficient evidence

to sheet home a charge which, in the general mind, may be deemed to be proved, there will be at least considerable satisfaction in knowing that the candidate has been subjected to a heavy expense. Theoretically this is an extremely wrong view to take, but the ways of electioneering make it different in practice. In Mr Joyce’s case it would have been manifestly unfair if he had been unseated because of some technical blunder on the part of a Government official. If such dangers were added to all that has to be gone through at election times the number of men of intelligence and respectability who are now willing to come forward and contest in elections, would be greatly lessened. None but rich men would dare come forward, for no man of small means would care to risk being ruined through an unintentional blunder on the part of a returning officer. There ought to be no such risk in a fairly fought election contest.