THE HALF-HOLIDAY,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1713, 2 April 1913, Page 8

THE HALF-HOLIDAY,

AND THE SATURDAY PETITION.. MR. T. F. MARTIN'S OPINION. Tlie shopkeepers who have been opposing'the proposal to have the-half-holiday observed on Saturday in the city and suburbs instead' of on Wednesday, received yesterday a legal opinion from Mr. T. F. Martin, a recognised authority on municipal law, concerning the legality or otherwise of tho petition recently presented to the City Council praying that a poll lie taken on the question ol' altering the half-holiday to Saturday. The opinion i$ a long statement, and it does not declare-the petition void. He simply lays dtyvn a jiuinber of rules to be followed in examining the petition and identifying . the signatures. As .to the rules which ho lays down, thp town clerk stated yesterday afternoon that the rules were- those which he had be-en following - in his scrutiny of the list of signatures. The main point on which the objectors relied whs that signatures to the petition consisting of only an initial and a surname, without any other description or any address, should not be admitted on the ground that the signature was not sufficient by which to identify the»signatory. Mr. Martin, however, has held that such, signatures aro not, for this reason, invalid. But Air. Martin submits other reasons, which will lead to tho disallowing of a great many signatures. A common practice of those canvassing for names was to present tho prospective , signatory with an enrolment form, and after he had signed it, to allow them to sign the petition. , All names so procured will, according to both Mr. Martin's and. tlie Town Clerk's ruling, - be disallowed, as persons signing under , such circumstances aro not electors. Further, Mr. Martin holds that tho roll■ to be used to check signatures on tha petition to discover whether they are those of electors should be the old roll, i.e., the roll for 1911, and liny supplementary list subsidiary thereto'. And Mi - J.' E. Palmer, the town clerk, had already, given instructions that tho old roll be usad for the purpose of identifying the petitioners. Mr. Martin' adds also that in his opinion the. number of valid signatures must be 10 per cent, of the'total number of electors oil the rolls of tho several local authorities included' in the combined district'at the time of the" presentation. of the requisition. The opponents of the petition say also that some of the signatures should be disallowed on the ground that they were not all written by- the persons named. It is suggested, for instance, that orio set of six names is in one handwriting, and the reference is that they have all been written, by the one person at tho same time. The objectors, Mi'. Martin say's, have the \ right to go to the courts and 'prove that signatures are 'not those of electors. . Since the petition was first presented a supplementary list, with 9GO names signed ' on it has been- presented. It is understood that Mr. Martin has been asked to give an .opinion as to whether these signatures can be taken into account.