HALF-HOLIDAY TANGLE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1826, 12 August 1913, Page 5

HALF-HOLIDAY TANGLE.

SPECIAL BILL FOR AUCKLAND. An attempt is to be made to remedy by legislation a peculiar situation which has ,ansen in, Auckland 'in connotrtion with the weekly half-holiday. Under the law as it stands, a combined district, •for the purposes of half-holiday polling, includes aTcicy and all within a mile of the city or within, a mile of boroughs which are,withina,niile'of:thß. city; - 1 :■;' " l! :*<!t ■

At a, poll : taken in the Auckland combined district, in April last tho decision was for Saturday, .'as tho weekly halfholiday. The combined, district then included, besides tho city, the suburban boroughs of Parnoll,,. Newmarket, Mount liden, and Grey Lynn, and the marine boroughs of Northcote and Birkenhead, on the other side of the harbour from the city. Devonport, another of the marine boroughs, was outside the combined district, being more than a mile away from either Auckland city or. Northcote, its nearest neighbouring borough. Birkenhead are just within the mile radius from the city. Since the poll of April last, Takapuna has been declared a borough. ■ This haa materially affected the half-holiday position, for Takapuua'is within a mife of Northcote, in one direction, and of Devonport in another. Both Takapuna. and Devonport have' therefore been added to tho combined district within whitih the SaturdaV half-holiday for shops is compulsory/ ■ ' •'. Of late, a sdmewhat complicated agitation has been raised, and a number of bulky petitions and counter-petitions havo been presented to Parliament. The decision of the Government to. introduce a special Bill represents an attempt to cut the knot. ' The Prime Minister will give notice to introduce the Bill to-day, and it will be submitted for .first reading to-moTrow. It will then bo referred to the Labour Bills Committee, but. in'any event can make no further progress' in the House until the Financial Debate lias ended. The Bill will provide for the ..taking of a. new poll, at the earliest practicable date, over the whole* of the Auckland combined district. It is proposed that the poll shall extend also to the Eden Terrace Road district, Whidh is tandwiched between the city and the Borough of Mount Eden, and in which the Saturday half-holiday does not _at presont obtain becauso under the existing Act a combined district includes only a city and .boroughs. At the poll .in April last about a thiri! of the electors recorded their votes, and Saturday was carried by' a substantial majority. It is thought quite* possible that at the special poll this decision may ,be reversed, t '