NO IRREGULARITIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1716, 5 April 1913, Page 6

NO IRREGULARITIES.

' STATEMENT'''BY MR. E. J." CAREY. Mr. L. J. Carey, who has beo:a mainly responsible for the organising of tho petitwn, .-made a short statement of the .trades view of the controversy reporter yesterday." Xho. Aef," he said, "requires a petition containing'the names of atieast ten per cent of the total number of electors in the combined district. 'Combined district means, for tho purposes of the Act all boroughs and town districts, any one ot which is within a mile of any other and tlius tho district in Wellington coini prises j the .boroughs of Wellington, Ons!°m' 'k" 0 "- and Mirainar. Tho petition, to annst therefore contain the signatures of one-tenth of the electors in those boroughs,:. Mr. O'Shea, City Solictor, advises that at tho time of tho presentation ;0f... the petition, only those Hfj wllo wero on the main roll ceitihed_-oa_- March li in the several areas_ affected aro electors within the meaning of the law. Ho relies on Section 7 of tho Municipal. Corporations Act, which orders the compilation of the main roll on that date in all boroughs. Mr. .Martin advises that as the regulations piondo -that tho new roll for the municipal elections does not oporate until April 1, and that, as : the petition was •presented beioro„ April 1, only those persoiis: whoso\ names are on the old rollthe.'roll; used at tho last' electors within the meaning of the law. But' Mr. O £>hea further advises that for greater safety the petition bo tested by •fi /li?' Probably in tho hope that it. will .fulfil the qualifications under both tests. /\Vo are confident that whatever ■test is applied wo have.a sufficient marof; signatures'to assure the validity of the petition. On Mr. O'Shea's reckoning there aro roughly 28,000' electors in the combined district. On Mr. Martin's reckoning there are about 35,000 electors. On our petition, there are the names of twOO 1 persons. '-If. Mr. O'Shea'a opinion 'holds wo: require approximaely 2800 valid signatures, and according to Mr. Martin we would require 3500. We have, therefore a margin of 3000 on Mr. O'Shea's reckoning and 3200 on Mr. Martin's. Wo would, havo preferred that tho broad spirit of the Act had been given effect to —namely, that tho petition should bo representative of at. least 10 per cent, of tho total number of electors on-the rails at- the forthcoming election. This number will bu approximately 40,000. Wo aro certain that*if, this were tho test wo would havo the required percentage, because., hundreds of new applicants for enrolment were also signatories to tho holiday petition. However, wo aro certain of a big margin, and wo are very glad of it, because of tho probability that it will be large onough,,to remove all grounds \for litigation on the subject. , . "This,.l should lilco to say in conclusion:* Tho-suggestion that there nro fictitious names on tho petition'is most unfair. It would have been foolish for us to attempt, or even to allow, such a thing, knowing as wo did that wo wero bound Johave, a close scrutiny of the petition" afterwards. A few people may have) tsrico owing to their own bad memory, but that is all. No promoter of tho petition, has been a party to tho writing in of wrong names on the petition.'"