DEAD MEN'S NAMES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17754, 13 April 1921, Page 6

DEAD MEN'S NAMES.

CITY RATING PETITION.

POBTION MANY YEAES OLD.

POLL WILL NOT BE HELD.

An extraordinary position has been revealed in connection with the petition sent to the City Council last week asking for a poll to be taken on the question of rating all properties in the city area on the basis of unimproved values. As a result of the examination of the petition undertaken by the city valuer, Mr. P. F. Notley, no poll will be held. One of the factors rendering the petition invalid is that some of the persons whoso signatures appear thereon have been dead for several years. Reporting upon ' his investigation the valuer said tho petition bote .2692 signatures. From that total must be deducted 177 names of persons not entitled to sign, and 937 names appearing on an old portion of tho petition. He was satisfied the latter were obtained a number of years ago. Mr. Notley stated that tho lion. Uooi'ge Fowldfi thought they might have been obtained nine ycaiß ago, but he, himself, was more inclined to think it was 16 years ago. There were 12,439 names on tho valuation roll, as ratepayers, so that the net total of 1578 left after making tho deductions named represented only 12.5 per cent, of the ratepayers, fro validate tho _ petition 15 per cent, was necessary.) The valuer's report gave instances of names, attached to various sheets of the petition, of persons who were no longer living. One had, he said, died 14 years ago in London; another died eight years ago; one in 1917, and one in 1918. Other nameewere given of persons who were on tho valuation rolls of 1910-11, and in 1907. He pointed out that in some of the addrosses attached to signatures tho names of the streets were the old names; for instanco, Upper Queen Street was given, whereas the prcront name, of the thoroughfare is Belgium Street; Upper Pitt Street was given, the name now being Franco Street; and King Street was another name used for tho present Richmond Street. Noting the omission of house numbers from some o_f the addresses on tho old sheets of the petition, Mr. Notley stated that these numbers were not put on houses until about 15 years' ago, hence their omission as stated. Furthermore, he eaid, tho heading of the petition had been altered from the Act of 1896 to that of 1908. There wore several numbers opposite to signatures, said the valuer in conclusion, which coincided with tho distort electors' roll of 1904-5.

Tho city solicitor, Mr. J. Stanton, was requested by the council to advise it whether it should treat these, old signatures as being in order. In Teply he slated that in his opinion the council could not treat them as valid. Tho Act, he said, required a specific demand for a poll to be signed by the prescribed percentage of ratepayer?. These old signatures could not have been attached to the present demand but to some provious demand which had been cither presented or abandoned. It would clearly bo wrong to treat these {signatures as having requested the council nt the present time to tako a poll on the ratine question. The Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gunson, stated that' in - view of these reports and the fact ,that the petition was invalid, no action by the City Council Vas necessary.