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Now, therefore, I, John Larkins Cheese Richardson, by virtue of the power so delegated to me as aforesaid, do hereby proclaim and declare that Waitahuna and the Woolshed diggings, and the lands adjacent thereto, shall be a district of the said gold field, for the purpose of forming a Mining Board, with the powers and authority in the said act described.

And I hereby further proclaim the name of such district to be Waitahuna District; and I define the limits of the said district to be the following, viz.:—Towards the north-west, the watershed between the Waitahuna and Tuapeka Rivers; towards the north-east, the watershed between the Waipori and the Waitahuna Rivers, and also between the Tokomairiro River and Meggat Burn; towards the south-east by the boundary of the Tuapeka gold field, and thence by the said boundary to the watershed of the Waitahuna and Tuapeka Rivers aforesaid.

And I do hereby prescribe as follows:—

1.—Seven shall be the number of the members of the said Mining Board.

2.—No person shall be qualified to be a member of the said Board unless he shall be of the full age of twenty-one years, holding a miner’s right or lease, and being a natural born or naturalized subject of the Queen, and resident within the district.

3.—William Baldwin, Esquire, shall act as Returning Officer for the said district.

4.—The Chairman of such Board shall be elected by and from the members thereof, and every member of such Board shall continue in office until his successor shall be elected, as hereinafter mentioned. But, notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, it shall be lawful for any member of the Mining Board, by writing under his hand, addressed to the returning officer, to resign his seat in such Board, and the same shall thereupon become vacant from the time of the receipt of such writing by the said returning officer.

5.—The first general election of members in the said district shall take place on Thursday and Friday, the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth days of September next, and on the last Thursday of the month of September in every subsequent year. Seven members shall be elected to serve on such Board, and whenever any seat in any Board shall become vacant in the interval between two general elections, by death, resignation, undue election, or want of such qualification as aforesaid, a member shall be elected to fill such vacancy.

6.—Every male person of the full age of twenty-one years, holding a miner’s right or lease, and being a natural born or naturalized subject of the Queen, and resident within the said district, shall be entitled to vote at every election for as many members as are then to be returned for the said district.

7.—One month at least before the said first, or any subsequent election, the Returning Officer shall give public notice of such election, requiring the names of all candidates and of their proposers, to be forwarded to him within such time, not less than fourteen days from the time of giving such notice as shall be named in such notice. And any person desirous of nominating a candidate for the said district shall, within the time named in such notice, forward to the Returning Officer, in writing, the christian and surname of such candidate, and such nomination shall be signed by not less than five persons qualified to vote at such election; and no person shall be capable of being elected at any such election, unless he shall have been proposed in manner above mentioned, and shall produce evidence, by a newspaper, to the Returning Officer that his name, as a candidate, shall have been published fourteen days before such election in some newspaper circulated in the said district.

8.—If the number of candidates nominated as aforesaid for the said district shall not exceed the number to be elected, the Returning Officer shall, at the said first or any subsequent election, declare such candidates to be duly elected, and they shall be deemed to be duly elected accordingly; but if the number of such candidates shall exceed the number of members to be elected at any such election, the Returning Officer shall cause voting papers to be printed with the christian and surnames of all the candidates in full, in the form A hereto annexed, and shall give public notice that a poll will be taken for the election of members on the days appointed for that purpose; and on each of those days a poll shall be taken at such places within the said district as the Returning Officer shall direct, and upon each day the poll shall commence at nine o’clock in the forenoon, and close at four o’clock in the afternoon.

9.—The Returning Officer shall preside at such polling places, and shall have power and authority to maintain and enforce order, and keep the peace at such election, and without any other warrant than this proclamation, to cause to be arrested and taken before a justice of the peace, to be dealt with according to law, any person reasonably suspected of knowingly and wilfully making a false answer to any question touching his qualification, or of personating, or attempting to personate, any voter, or of attempting to vote more than once at such election.

10.—Each candidate shall be entitled to appoint, in writing, one scrutineer to be present in the polling room, and such scrutineers and the Returning Officer, and any electors not exceeding six in number shall alone be permitted at any one time to enter or remain in the polling room without the consent of the Returning Officer, and the Returning Officer shall have power to cause any person to be removed who shall obstruct the approaches to the polling room, or shall conduct himself in a disorderly manner, and all constables and peace officers shall aid and assist the Returning Officer in the performance of his duty.

11.—The Returning Officer shall provide a locked box with a cleft or opening therein, capable of receiving the ballot papers, and such box shall stand on a table opposite the Returning Officer, who shall keep the key of such box.