The Short Title of this Act is “The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act 1881 Amendment Act, 1882.”

Section seventeen of “The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1881,” is hereby repealed.

From and after the passing of this Act, section ten of “The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1881,” shall be read as applying to persons committing illegal practices, as well as to persons committing corrupt practices, save that the fine to be imposed on conviction of the commission of an illegal practice shall not exceed one hundred pounds; and that the incapacities specified in clauses (a) and (b) of subsection one of the said section ten shall not continue for more than three years from the date of conviction of an illegal practice; and that subsection two of the said section ten shall not apply to illegal practices.

Any person, whether a candidate or not, who shall, on the trial of an election petition, be reported by the Election Court as having been guilty of a corrupt practice or of an illegal practice, or who shall have been found guilty, after trial in the Supreme Court, of a corrupt practice or an illegal practice, shall only be subject to such of the incapacities, if any, specified in the said Act and in this Act, and for such time not exceeding three years as the Election Court in such report shall state, in their opinion, he ought to be subject to, or as the Judge presiding at the trial at which he is so convicted as aforesaid shall order in writing such person so convicted to be subject to, as the case may be.

Whereas on the trial of an election petition regarding the election of a member for the House of Representatives for the Stanmore Electoral District, the Judges who tried the said petition found that Walter Hippolyte Pilliet had been guilty of an illegal practice, and declared the election void: And whereas such finding has been reported to the House of Representatives, and duly entered in the Journals of the House: And whereas it appears that the illegal act committed by the said Walter Hippolyte Pilliet was of a purely technical character, and that he should be relieved from the penalties or disqualifications imposed by the said Act:

Be it therefore enacted that the said Walter Hippolyte Pilliet is hereby freed and discharged from and indemnified against all penalties, forfeitures, incapacities, and disabilities that he may have incurred by reason of anything he may have done in and about the election held in and for the Stanmore Electoral District in the month of December, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one; and, notwithstanding anything he may have done or omitted to do, he shall be eligible for election to a seat in the House of Representatives, and shall hold the appointments he held prior to the said election, and possess the privileges he possessed prior to the said election, as if he had not committed any offence under “The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1881,” and no proceedings for any offences under “The Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1881,” committed by him prior to the passing of this Act, shall be commenced against him in any Court.

Provided that the foregoing provisions shall not be taken as altering or in any way affecting the certificate of the Judges that the said Stanmore election is void.