CLOSING DAY POLL

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 94, 6 November 1953, Page 1

CLOSING DAY POLL

MAJORITY FOR CHANGE TO SATURDAY Voting in the poll held last Saturday, concurrently with the Borough Council election, to determine a day to be observed in Taupo as the statutory closing day for shops, resulted in a substantial majority in favour of Saturday closing. The figures were as follows:— Saturday 378 Monday 227 ThurSday 95 Wednesday 3 Friday 1 Informal 11 For many years the closing day for shops in Taupo has been Thursday. The Taupo Businessmen's Association some time ago sponsored an informal poll of shop customers on the question of the weekly closing day, which showed a majority in favour of Monday, and later the Association organised the signing of a petition to the Town Board requesting a poll on the issue. The statutory number of signatures of electors having been secured the poll was duly taken. Procedure re Change The procedure following a poll, as laid down by statute, provides that the Returning Ofhcer shall forward to the Minister of Labour a certificate indicating the result of the poll. The Minister, following receipt of the certificate, notifies the chosen day in a notice in the Gazette, and notifies also the date when the change becomes effective. This date must be not later than three month from the gazetting of the notice. In a telephone conversation with the "Times," an ofRcer of the Labour Department, Wellington, stated that the date notified in the Gazette for the change to take qffect was usually fixed by the Minister two or three weeks after that of publication, which enabled copies of the Gazette to be forwarded to the local body. rj Thursday will thus remain the closing day for shop in Taupo until the date when the change \s to become effective is notified in the Gazette.