Mills

This controversy arises under the provisions of an act of the legislature familiarily known as the Wyllie Act, found in the Statutes of 1911 at page 599 and also printed in Deering’s General Laws as Apt 1696.

Section 1 of the statute provides, to quote so much of it only as bears upon this case, that “qualified electors of any incorporated city . . . numbering not less than twenty-five per cent of the number of votes cast for all candidates for Governor, ... in the city ... at the last preceding election for Governor, . . . may petition the . . . board of trustees ... of such city . . .'to call an election to vote upon the question, whether the sale of alcoholic liquors shall be licensed in such city. ...”

Section 4 is as follows: “Upon the filing of said petition the clerk of the body to which it is addressed shall forthwith examine it, and from the great register ascertain whether or not said petition is signed by the requisite number of qualified electors of the territory described therein, and, if necessary, he shall be allowed extra help for that purpose, and within ten days from the date of filing such petition he shall certify in writing the result of such examination and…