26. Election Offences

When any return respecting election expenses and the statements made in respect thereof have been re-ceived by the proper officer, he shall, as soon as may be, cause a notice of the date on which the return and state-ments in question were received by him and of the time and place at which they can be inspected, to be fixed in some conspicuous place in his office and published in the Gazette.

The proper officer shall preserve all such returns and statements with the bills and vouchers relating thereto and at all reasonable times during 6 months next after the publication in the Gazette of the notice mentioned in this section shall permit any person to inspect them and to make extracts therefrom on payment of a fee of $5 and shall on payment of $1 per page or part thereof, supply a copy or copies of any part thereof; and after the expiration of the said period of 6 months the said documents may be des-troyed or returned to the candidate if application for their return is made by the candidate before they are destroyed.