Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 104
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
Also included are a draft of a writ of election; commissions
appointing Returning Officers; 1859 map of Electoral Districts;
copy of Electoral Law Amendment Act of 1858; and Government
Gazette notice of 10 May 1859 concerning the appointment of
polling places, specifying Electoral District and polling places.
Requests for additional polling places; approvals for the
appointment of additional polling places; and, memorials for
polling places are also to be found among these papers.
1859 General Elections — Seat of the Gold Fields North
Electoral District claimed by James Hoskins, 1859
CGS 906,
[4/744.4]
James Hoskins, who had been a candidate to serve as a Member of
the Legislative Assembly for the Electoral District of Gold Fields
North in an election that took place on 6 July 1858, petitioned the
Legislative Assembly praying that he be declared duly elected.
That notwithstanding such Election having taken place, and the
fact of Petitioner having been returned by a large majority of
the voters, the Returning Officer of the Electorate of the Gold
Fields North, whose duty it was to have returned to His
Excellency the Governor the Writ, with the name of the person
elected for the said Electoral District endorsed thereon, has
failed in making any such return.
The reason claimed by Hoskins for this was that the Presiding
Officer at Canoona had not delivered or transmitted to the
Returning Officer the returns of the state of the poll; consequently
the Returning Officer was not in a position to endorse and return
the writ.
This matter was investigated by a Select Committee of the
Legislative Assembly which recommended that William Cleghorn,
the Returning Officer, be instructed to return the writ with the
name of the person elected endorsed thereon as soon as possible.
The Colonial Secretary wrote to Cleghorn on 25 October 1859 as
per the Select Committee's recommendation, and the writ was
returned by Cleghorn shortly thereafter. In a Proclamation dated
8 November 1859 it was declared that James Hoskins' election to
serve in the Legislative Assembly for the Electoral District was
valid notwithstanding the delay in the return of the writ.
In addition to the printed October 1859 Report from the Select
Committee on the Seat claimed by James Hoskins, Esq., together
with the proceedings of the Committee, and minutes of evidence
and extracts from minutes of the Executive Council, other papers
mainly comprise correspondence between the Colonial Secretary's
Office and the Returning Officer. There are many papers relating
to general electoral matters: ballot boxes; requests for information
concerning the right of miners to vote; acknowledging receipt of
his commission as Returning Officer and of the writ of election;
request for the appointment of an additional polling place;
reporting the anticipated delay in returning the writ; appointment
of Presiding Officers, including at Canoona; reporting that returns
from Canoona had not yet reached him; and declarations of
Presiding Officer and Poll Clerk at Canoona. Other papers,
however, relate to explanations for and inquiries into the nonreturn of the writ and the occurrences at Canoona, and include
letters from the Government Resident at Port Curtis and the Bench
of Magistrates at Rockhampton.
102
State Records Authority of New South Wales
