1702

(d) If, being delivered to the Returning Officer,
the sealed envelope containing the voting-paper is
not delivered at his office before the close of the
poll; or
(e) If, having been forwarded by post, the sealed
envelope containing the voting-paper is not received
at the office of the Returning Officer before the
close of the seventh day after the day of election,
or if, from the post-mark on the envelope or other-
wise, the Returning Officer is satisfied that it was not
posted until after the day of the election:
(f) If it does not bear the official mark and there
is reasonable cause to believe that it was not issued
to the voter by the Returning Officer:
(g) If the voter fails to sign his name on the
inside of the flap of the envelope.
(13) On the eighth day after the day of election the
Returning Officer shall open and examine all voting-
papers duly delivered to him or received by him
through the post as aforesaid, and, after rejecting
all informal voting-papers, shall ascertain the candi-
dates (not exceeding the total number to be elected)
who have received the greatest number of votes,
and shall declare such candidates to be elected.
(14) If, by reason of an equality of votes given for two
or more candidates, the election is not complete,
the Returning Officer shall decide by lot, in the
presence of two members of the Board, which candi-
date or candidates shall be elected, and thereby
complete the election.
(15) (a) Each candidate may, by writing under his hand,
appoint one scrutineer, who may be present at the
examination of the voting-papers and the counting
of the votes by the Returning Officer.
(b) The Returning Officer shall, immediately after
counting the votes, seal up all voting-papers, and
transmit the whole to the Clerk of the nearest
Magistrate's Court, who shall keep the same for six
months thereafter, and shall not open or permit to
be opened such packet except on the order of some
Court of competent jurisdiction, and shall at the
end of six months effectually destroy the same.
(16) (a) Forthwith after the completion of the election
the Returning Officer shall, by notice exhibited on
the outside of the office of the Board, notify the
names of the persons elected, the number of valid
votes recorded for each candidate, and the total
number of votes rejected as informal, and shall notify
to the Board and to the Minister the names of the
persons elected.
(b) The Returning Officer and every scrutineer
shall be required faithfully and impartially to per-
form the duties of their offices, and shall not directly
or indirectly make known the state of the poll or
give or pretend to give any information by which
the state of the poll may be known before the final
declaration thereof by the Returning Officer, or
make known for which candidate any voter has voted,
or communicate to any person any information likely
to defeat the secrecy of the ballot.
(17) If a candidate informs the Returning Officer in writing,
not later than three clear days before the polling-
day, that he retires from the election, the Returning
Officer shall give public notice thereof; and if by
such retirement the number of candidates is reduced
to the number of vacancies to be filled, the Returning
Officer shall publicly declare the remaining candidates
to be duly elected; but if the said number of
candidates is not so reduced the poll shall proceed,
but the person so retiring shall not be capable of
being elected.

ELECTION OF REPRESENTATIVES OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES.

7. (1) The Board shall, by and through its Secretary,
   register associations of employers in local industries, and
   associations of employees in local industries.
   (2) The registers of such associations shall severally be
   closed at noon on the fourteenth day before the day of the
   election.
8. (1) The member to be elected by registered associa-
   tions of employers in local industries shall be elected by an
   electing committee appointed when required.
   (2) Registered associations of employers shall each be
   entitled to appoint one member of the electing committee for
   employers.
   (3) The names and addresses of persons appointed as mem-
   bers of such electing committee shall be forwarded by the
   registered associations concerned to the Returning Officer
   before noon on the fourteenth day before the day of the
   election,

(4) Such electing committee shall meet on the day fixed
for the election, and shall elect, on behalf of the associations
of employers, one member in such manner as it shall deem
fit, provided that no member of the electing committee shall
exercise more than one vote, excepting the Chairman, who
shall exercise a casting-vote in addition to his ordinary vote,
in any case where such a vote is necessary to determine the
election.
(5) The meeting of the electing committee shall be convened
by the Returning Officer who shall act as secretary to the
committee in person or by deputy.
(6) The name of the member so elected shall be notified
forthwith to the Minister and to the Board by writing under
the hand of the Returning Officer.
9. The provisions of Regulation 8 hereof shall apply, mutatis
mutandis, to the election of a member by associations of
employees in local industries.
10. If any dispute or question arises touching the regularity
of any election, such dispute or question shall be determined
by the Minister, whose decision shall be final.
11. The members of the Board appointed or elected in
accordance with these regulations shall retire on the 31st May
in the year 1930, and on the 31st May in each second year
thereafter.
12. Retiring members shall be eligible for reappointment
or re-election either by the same or another appointing or
electing body.
13. The first appointments shall be made and the first
election shall be held under these regulations in the month
of May, 1928, and the members appointed or elected shall
come into office on the 1st day of June, 1928.
14. It shall be the duty of the Board to notify the Minister,
the Education Board, the New Plymouth Borough Council,
the Taranaki County Council, registered associations of em-
ployers in local industries, and registered associations of
employees in local industries, by writing under the hand of
the Secretary of the Board in the month of March in each
year in which members of the Board retire, of the forthcoming
vacancies on the Board to be filled respectively by the
Governor-General or the other appointing or electing authori-
ties concerned.
15. Whenever a casual vacancy occurs it shall be the duty
of the Board forthwith to report the fact to the Minister if
the vacancy is to be filled by the Governor-General, or to
the Secretary of the Education Board if the vacancy is to be
filled by the Board, or to the Town Clerk in the case of a
member to be appointed by the New Plymouth Borough
Council, or to the County Clerk in the case of a member to
be appointed by the Taranaki County Council.
16. (1) The appointment or election of members to fill
vacancies caused by the expiry of the ordinary term of office
shall be made in the month of May at the end whereof such
expiry takes place, but shall not take effect until such expiry.
(2) The appointment or election of a member to fill a casual
vacancy shall be made not later than fifty days after the
vacancy occurs.
17. It shall not be necessary that the member appointed
by any of the appointing or electing bodies shall himself be
a member of such body, nor that a member elected by parents
shall himself be the parent of a pupil.
18. If any appointment of a member is not made within
the time hereinbefore prescribed, or if at any election the
number of candidates nominated or duly elected is less than
the number of vacancies to be filled, the Secretary shall give
notice thereof to the Minister, and the vacancy for which no
candidate has been appointed, nominated, or elected (as the
case may be) may be filled by appointment by the Minister,
or the Minister may direct that the body charged with the
duty of appointing a member may proceed to make such
appointment, or that the Board proceed to another election
for the election of such member or members as the case may be.
19. Where anything connected with the appointment or
election of members is omitted to be done, or cannot be done
at or by the time hereby prescribed, or is done after such
time, or is otherwise irregularly done in matter of form the
Minister may at any time before or after the time at or by
which such thing is required to be done extend the time for
doing such thing to such further time as he thinks fit, or may
validate anything so done after the time required or so
irregularly done in matter of form as he thinks fit.
20. No act or proceeding of the Board, or of any committee
of the Board, or of any person acting as a member of the Board,
shall be invalid in consequence of there being a vacancy in
the membership of the Board at the time of such act or pro-
ceeding, or by reason of there being a defect in the appointment
or election of any person so acting, or by reason of his being
incapable of being appointed or elected.
F. D. THOMSON,
Clerk of the Executive Council.