Dec. 23.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 3473

the electoral list of that branch accordingly. If any officer does not indicate the branch with which he will vote he shall be placed on such list as the Returning Officer thinks fit.

87. The Principal, Postal Division of the Secretary’s Office, General Post Office, or the person for the time being performing the duties of such Principal, shall be the Returning Officer for the election. There shall be two Scrutineers—namely, the Assistant Postmaster, Wellington, and the Superintendent of the Telegraph Office, Wellington, or the respective persons performing the duties of those officers.

88. Candidates for election shall be nominated in writing by not less than three officers entitled to vote, and nominations must reach the Returning Officer at Wellington at latest twenty-eight days before the day on which the ballot (if required) is to be taken. The consent of the candidate to nomination must appear on the face of the nomination-paper and be signed by him.

89. Should there be only one nomination for either branch, the officer nominated shall be declared by the Returning Officer to be duly elected.

90. Should there be more than one nomination for either branch, the Returning Officer shall cause ballot-papers, in the form or to the effect of the following, to be printed and supplied by post to every officer of that branch entitled to vote:—

ELECTION FOR MEMBER OF POST AND TELEGRAPH APPEAL BOARD, POSTAL BRANCH (or TELEGRAPH BRANCH, as the case may be).

BROWN, JAMES. (Auckland.)
HUNTER, CHARLES. (Wellington.)
JONES, JOHN. (Christchurch.)
MORGAN, EDWARD. (Dunedin.)
ROBINSON, GEORGE. (Invercargill.)
SMITH, WILLIAM. (Napier.)

NOTES.—The voter may vote for only one candidate. The voter is to strike out, by drawing a line through the name with pen and ink or with pencil, the name of every candidate for whom he or she does not intend to vote.

The voter must take care not to leave uncancelled the names of more than one candidate, otherwise the vote will be invalid. The ballot-paper is to be folded so that the contents cannot be seen, and is to be transmitted to the Returning Officer.

91. The ballot-paper shall contain a list of all the persons nominated (and of no other person), each person’s name, followed by the name of the station at which he is located, being inserted once only, the list being arranged alphabetically in the order of the candidates’ surnames. Each paper shall have a number corresponding with that on the list of voters of the officer to whom it is supplied. Such number shall be written by the Returning Officer on the left-hand bottom corner of the paper, and shall be covered by the corner being folded and gummed down before the paper is sent to the voter.

92. All ballot-papers shall be transmitted by post to the Returning Officer at Wellington, in envelopes which will be provided for the purpose, and must reach him not later than 5 o’clock p.m. on the second day after the day of the ballot.

93. No officer shall in any case be compelled to record his vote, but the ballot-paper must be sent to the Returning Officer whether or not the vote is exercised.

94. Immediately after 5 p.m. of the last day fixed for the receipt at Wellington of ballot-papers the Returning Officer shall, in the presence of the Scrutineers, proceed to ascertain the total number of votes recorded for each candidate. The Returning Officer shall cause the result to be published in the Department’s Official Circular, and shall declare as duly elected the candidate who obtains the highest number of votes in each case. The voting-papers shall, after being counted, be enclosed in a packet which is to be sealed and retained by the Returning Officer. It shall not be opened unless a scrutiny be demanded, when such scrutiny shall be conducted by the Returning Officer and the two Scrutineers, and for that purpose the packet shall be opened in the presence of the Returning Officer and the two Scrutineers. The papers shall remain in the Returning Officer’s custody for two months, and shall then be destroyed. If a scrutiny is demanded, application therefor must be made in writing to the Returning Officer within fourteen days after publication of the result aforesaid.

95. Whenever there is an equality of votes at an election, leaving it a matter of doubt as to who should be considered elected, and the addition of one vote to the total of any candidate will remove

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