In the course of hearing argument re Port Chalmers poll in Court of Appeal, the Chief Justice is reported in Otago Daily Times to have spoken as follows:— page 33

"The Chief Justice remarked that it was perfectly plain that the Regulation of Local Elections Act was not a suitable one to deal with these questions at all. But the Legislature had chosen to say it was, and they must spell some sense out of it. One had only to look at the Act to see that, even as applicable to County Council elections, it was far from being complete. The whole tiling required revision by the Legislature—there was no doubt about that."