ELECTIONS AND ROLLS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 108, 8 May 1913, Page 8

ELECTIONS AND ROLLS

TO THE BDttOB. Sir,— The municipal "elections" have come and gone, and one of th 6 chief Questions concerned therewith was entirely neglected by tho various candidates, namely, a clean,/ reliablo municipal roll. I am referring specially to this question on account of the bungle mado over the half-holiday petition, whereby the public and shopkeepers were do.prived of obtaining what is desired, tho universal half-holiday from 1 o'clock on Saturday. I am quite aware of tho usual objectors, but their numbers are small to the space they get in --tho papers, etc. In reference to the roll and my own case, as a small shopkeeper, I may say I have voted at all elections, and previous to signing the petition to obtain the poll I inspected the roll placed at one of the councillor's business premises. My name was there all right, but a few days after I noticed these rolls were withdrawn, something being brought to bear, and a fresh roll was T>eing set up. . Owing to special notice being called that everybody, to make sure, should call at the Town Hall, I enquired there, but was informed my name was not on nor my wife's, and we had been on tho rollt* previously, for some years. I therefore got myself enrolled and aho signed the requisition for the poll, but was ohagnned to find that our names on the requisition did not count, as the roll for that_ purpose had closed a few days previously. For business premises I pay faii-ly big rent, and also rates, indirectly, through the owners, and I think tho handling of these two. rolls and subsequent blocking of the requisition will faquire some explaining away. Of courno nothing can be done tor two years (except Parliament makes it compulsory, as in Australia).. I would advise those interested to be certain quite threo montlu, previous to the poll to get the genuine roll for that purpose, to absolutoly prevent such a fiasco as the late- affair. A true, correct, municipal roll is one work for_ the new council. As to the halfholiday elsewhere, Auckland and Christchurch hove decided on Saturday, and I venture to predict they will never revert to the midweek holiday. Success in these two places may help tho Government to bring down a Saturday Closing Bill and avoid any further polls or discussions on the matter. Trusting this letter may reach the, notice of the City Council and Mr. Massey.— -I am, etc., SMALL SHOPKEEPER, Wellington, 6th May, 1913.

If there was 1 ever., a phantom ship it should be one which will leave San Pedro for China next month. It will carry one of the most gruesome cargoes on record (states a cable to the Sydney s " n )- The vessel will be loaded with the bones and earthly remains of nearly every Chinaman who has died in Southern California during the last fifty years. Nearly a year ago the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association began to collect the remains from the churchyards all over the country, but the preparations were carried on so quietly that no public interest was excited. The bones of about 6000 Chinamen have now been recovered, wrapped up in pieces of soft cloth, placed in boxes, and carefully sealed. Tha remains will be re-interred in China. The little band of lonic passengers, who, on arrival in Wellington, were found to be suffering from measles and were placed on Somes Island for treatment, is now rapidly diminishing in nu mber. With the exception of twelve all have become convalescent, and have been released from quarantine. By Monday next the remaining patients will have also left the island. At an inquest in London last week into the death of a man who was killed through being run over by a motor 'bus, the Coroner remarked that he was glad that the 'bus companies were expeiimenting with cow-catchers, the use of which on motoi-'busca hffd been udvocated for. the last jsis. jearv