This Act may be cited as the Gaming Poll Act, 1948, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Gaming Act, 1908.

On a day to be fixed by the Governor-General by Order in Council, there shall be taken a poll of the electors of each electoral district constituted under the Electoral Amendment Act, 1945, and of each Maori electoral district constituted under Part IV of the Electoral Act, 1927, upon the proposal that provision be made for off-course betting on horse-races, through the totalizator, by means to be provided by the New Zealand Racing Conference and the New Zealand Trotting Conference.

Provided that the voting-paper given to any elector of a Maori electoral district shall be printed both in the English language and in the Maori language.

Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any regulations made under this Act, and subject to all necessary modifications, the poll shall be taken in the same manner as if it were a general licensing poll taken simultaneously with a general election of members of Parliament, and the provisions of the Licensing Act, 1908, and of the Electoral Act, 1927, shall, as far as they are applicable and subject as aforesaid, apply accordingly.

In each Maori electoral district the poll shall close at seven o’clock in the afternoon.

The day of the poll shall not be a half-holiday, and section one hundred and twenty-eight of the Electoral Act, 1927 (as amended by section twenty-six of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1946), shall apply to the poll as if the following subsection had been substituted for subsections one and three:—

Any elector of a Maori electoral district, instead of voting at a Maori polling-place, may vote at any European polling-place within that district in the same manner as if it were a Maori polling-place.

Any elector of a Maori electoral district may vote as an absent voter under section one hundred and thirty-nine of the Electoral Act, 1927, as applied by section sixteen of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1941, at any polling-place outside that district, whether European or Maori.

Subject to the provisions of this section, the roll of electors for each electoral district at the poll shall be the roll as provided by the Electoral Act, 1927.

For the purposes of the poll the roll in each district shall be deemed to be closed at six o’clock in the afternoon of a day to be fixed by the Governor-General by Order in Council, and that day shall in each district be deemed to be equivalent to the day of the issue of a writ for the election of a member for the district.

The rolls to be used in each district for the purposes of the poll shall be the general and supplementary rolls used at the last election of a member of Parliament for the district, amended as required by the Electoral Act, 1927, together with a further supplementary roll to be prepared by the Registrar of Electors of each district and to include the names of all electors registered by him after the closing of the rolls for the last election of a member of Parliament for the district and remaining on the roll for the district at its closing under subsection two of this section.

In every district the general roll and every supplementary roll used at the poll directed by this Act, together with any supplementary roll prepared after that poll, shall be the roll to be used at any by-election held before the first general election held after the passing of this Act.

As soon as practicable after the close of the poll in each district the Returning Officer shall count the votes recorded for and against the proposal, and shall reject all informal votes.

Immediately after he has counted the votes he shall send to the Chief Electoral Officer a statement of the number of informal votes, and of the total number of valid votes recorded, and of the number of valid votes recorded for and against the proposal.

As soon as the the Chief Electoral Officer has received the said statements from all Returning Officers he shall ascertain and declare—

The Chief Electoral Officer shall notify in the Gazette the numbers of the votes as finally ascertained by him and the result of the poll as determined thereby.

The Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council, make all such regulations as may be deemed necessary or expedient for the purpose of giving full effect to the provisions of this Act and for the due administration thereof.