SATURDAY’S POLL

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 307, 22 September 1943, Page 6

SATURDAY’S POLL

Voting Permitted From 9 a.m. To 7 p.m. PUBLIC HALF-HOLIDAY Voting hours at 'Saturday's general election for the European seats in the House of Representatives will be from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Polling for the four Maori constituencies will take place the previous day, but in the case of these electorates 'the hours for voting will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Any person entitled to vote who may be away from his own electorate cun vote as an absent voter at any polling place on election day, and no permit is required. The procedure is that the elector applies to the deputy returning officer of the booth at which he wishes to vote and completes a simple application form. A voting paper for the Parliamentary election as well as for the national licensing issue will be supplied to him, and should he 'be from a no-licenee district he will be furnished with a third paper entitling him to vote on the local restoration issue.

Postal voting anplies to the following classes of persons: Voters other than members of the armed forces who will be absent from New Zealand on polling day; voters who will not be within two miles of the nearest polling place; persons who will be travelling on election day and who will be unable to attend at a polling place to record their votes; persons who are ill or infirm; women approaching maternity; lighthouse keepers, their staffs, and wives; persons who have religious objections to voting on the day fixed for the poll; and persons specially authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer to vote by post. Before departure in the ease of a person who will be out of New Zealand, and with the others before election day, application must be made to the returning officer for the district lor a postal vote certificate and postal ballot and voting papers. If the person concerned is entitled to vote the returning officer will issue the postal vote certificate and the necessary voting papers, which must be completed and returned to him before tlie close of the poll—s p.m. in the case of Friday's Maori elections, and 7 p.m. on Saturday for the European electorates. Closing of Hotel Bars. Under the Electoral Act, Saturday, as the day of the general election, wilt be a public holiday after midday. It will be unlawful to sell intoxicating liquors on

any licensed premises after noon that day. Requirements in regard to the halfholiday on Saturday are as follows:— Sho”keepers who are required to elose their'shops on Saturday as. the weekly half-holiday must close their shops as usual at noon. Shopkeepers who are ordinarily entitled by law to observe the statutory closing day on some day other than Saturday must, -for the week ending September 25. substitute Saturday for such other closing day. , Shops must 'be closed from the hour of 12 noon and the employees must be given a half-holiday from 12 noon. . The following shops are not required to be closed on eleetioq. day : —r ishmongers, fruiterers, confectioners, dairies, florists, newsagents, bakers, book-stalls on railway statioris or wharves, milkbars. restaurants, and tearooms. Offices ‘that are required by law to be closed for a half-holiday each week must be closed not later than 12 noon on polling day and office assistants must be given a half-holiday from 12 o’clock.. The following offices are not required to be closed on the afternoon of polling day Shipping, railway, tramway, newspaper, telegraph agencies, cable companies or telegraph companies, offices ot freezing companies or offices of forwarding agencies, passenger transport services or agencies, or offices of auctioneers situated in stockyards, or offices of harbour boards, woolbrokers, or wool buyers. Office assistants employed in the foregoing offices may be employed if the premises are kept (ujeil, r , Factories that are open for work on Saturday morning are permitted by law to work as usual on polling day. As the statutory half-holiday for factory workers in the Wellington metropolitan area is Saturday, no change will take place from the usual procedure on Saturdays. Workers who are usually employed in factories on Saturday afternoons, and who are eligible to vote, are entitled to reasonable time off to record their votes without a deduction being made from their wages, provided that such time off does not exceed one working hour. Workers not employed in shops, Inctories. or offices, such as workers employed as labourers, carpenters, painters, plumbers, plasterers, bricklayers, electricians, tilers, storemen, drivers, gardeners, etc., arc not entitled under the provisions of tlie Electoral Act to a halfholiday or any time off in which to record their votes, such workers being covered by awards. or by the Essential Building Works Labour Legislation Modification Order, 1943, as the case may be, and the respective provisions thereof will apply as though polling day were an ordinary Saturday.