RATING IN THE CITY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4513, 14 November 1901, Page 5

RATING IN THE CITY

TO-DAY’S POLLING. Polling Trill take jdace to.clay on the proposal, to adopt the Eating on Unim. proved Value Act in the city of Welling, ton, ami thereby to rate property upon the basis of the unimproved value of the land. Mr .lames Ames is the returning officer, and the polling booths will be as follow; St. Paul’s schoolroom. Sydney street; the City Council Chambers. Bran, don street; the Eechabite Hail. Manners street; the Foresters’ Hall, Tory street; St. Murk’s schoolroom, Sus. sex square; and St. Thomas’s schoolroom, 1 Eiddiford street. The poll will open at 9 a.ra. and close at 7 p.m. As the poll is on a proposal relating to rates, those municipal electors who have only a residential qualification are not en. titled to vote. Those who can vote are freeholders and ratepayers, together with their husbands or wives, provided that their names are on the municipal electoral roll.' The wives of freeholders and rate, payers have the right to vote as well as their .husbands; and. vice versa, if the freeholder or ratepayer is a married .to. man, her husband can also vote. Under the original Act it was provided that one.third of those on the roll must vote if the proposal was to be carried. This provision was repealed last year. The present position of the law is that a ma. jority of the valid votes cast will decide the issue. It will not matter how small the total number of votes cast may be. The proposal cannot, as was once the case, be defeated merely by a largo number of ratepayers staying away from the poll. It will he carried or rejected by a simple majority of those who record their votes. To abstain from voting will be of no avail. It therefore behoves all eligible voters to go to the poll. By way of recapitulation, it may be shortly stated that all freeholders and ratepayers, with their wives and husbands, whose names are on the roll of municipal electors, have the right to vote, and that the proposal will K 6 carried or lost ac. cording to the decision of the maiority of those who vote. . w