POLLING-DAY ARRANGEMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LV, Issue 4572, 14 November 1935, Page 4

POLLING-DAY ARRANGEMENTS.

Section 128 of the Electoral Act, 1927, provides as follows: — “Where the polling-day at any election is other than that appointed'as the weekly'half-hoilday under the Shops and Offices Act, 1921-22, the provisions of that Act relating to the weekly half-holiday shall be deemed to refer to the polling-day in lieu of the day so appointed, and it shall not be necessary for. any employer to observe the day so appointed in the week in which t,he polling-day falls. “It shall not be necessary for any factory to close during any working hours on the polling day, but the occupier of the factory shall afford to each of his employees a reasonable opportunity of recording his vote, and no deduction shall be made from the wages of any such employee in respect of the time occupied in so recording his vote, providing that such time does not exceed one working hour. “Every person who commits any offence against this section is liable to a fine of five pounds.*’ •Factory occupiers are thus required merely to give their employees reasonable time to record their votes, but not exceeding one working-hour, without deduction from their wages. The occupiers of shops must, however, observe the usual weekly half-holiday next week upon polling day. In the case of those shops which are not required to observe a statutory closing-day, viz., fishmongers, fruiterers, confectioners, florists, dairy producesellers, bakers, etc. (vide' section 21 (a) of the Act as amended by Section 10 (a) of the 1927 Amendment Act) the assistants must be given their half-holiday on polling day.