THE COMPACT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 854, 28 June 1910, Page 6

THE COMPACT.

DEAD AND BURIED. POSITION EXPLAINED BY MR.. AVESLEY SPKAGG. Or TeleKraph.-Fresa Association.! Auckland,' June 27. Mr. Wesley vSpragg -(president of the , Now. Zealand Alliance) in the course of ; an interview to-day stated:— "Tho result of tho recent Wellington i Conference is not to my liking. I would ! havo preferred that the Anti-Liquor party, to which I belong, should have approved of the compact arranged with ■ tho Hon. Dr. Findlay. ",T,still think H would have given us a .vote in favour of prohibition of liquor in.the Dominion in from one to foui years.. However, an im- . portant section of our people thought . differently, and as their. position was claimed as being based upon principle it was to be expected that'they would not be moved. Tho compact itself embodied only expediency for tho immediate present. The principles for which the Alliance stands were ill no . way eet aside by it. «"■•"'- "The , arrangement with Dr. Findlay has never been generally '.'.understood. As a party.to it,,l was careful to explain to Mm- Uiat the persons, inducing myself, who signed it. were authorised to do so by the Alliance Executive,' but that the body, of our people had y, not. and could nof- ,be. consulted 'upon -it; that I believed they .too", would'endorse our action, but that neither I nor anyone else could positively sjjpak for or commit them to an expediency arrangement. Part of the engagement of niysplf and-the Revs. Dawsou and Dciwrney wns that we would do our utmost to obtain-tho ratification of the party. This has been done up to the point of -splitting our forces. ; "Nothing short of-'forcing a serious division has. been left undone which could possibly havo been done, and wo liaye now' k>'say-to; Dr; Pindlay imd tho Prime Minister that we men ,who signed have redeemed .our"promises to the letter, but that to our regret our action has not received the endorsement of our people whiish .it required to make it operative. That ie the. whole position, regrettable as.far as Lain concerned, butnot k the. least, reflecting upon tho Prohibition party. Many influences operated to cause-the rejection of the compact. .Some of our people say that in their judgment the-method of-taking the vote violated principle. I do not sympathise with this idea. "Many more opposed it bec&Tifie, as a.n : expedient, it adopted a less democratic forin of settling the question tiraii by a bafo majority. Others were iudigjian-t because of the extension, of tune-"before a No-License poll was to be operative. The opposition on this count was the most violent, while genorally there was an indisposition to in any way appear'to have parleying between our ranks and the enemy. The result- -is that, having, in accordance with promise, .done everything possible to bring our ranks into -lino with the compact, and having failed, the arrangement with Dr. Findlay is now, a thing of tho past. The compact is dead and buried,- amd I am a sincere mourner over ; its honourable decease. .. . ' ' , "I think one of -the things which influences some of our people in their decision, is the fact that, the Labour bodies of various kinds are now, acting in sympathy with' Labour leaders the world over, ranging themselves on the side of opposition,, to liquor, and liquor interests. . Our convention demands a plebiscite with operative clauses upon Doininion Prohibition. Tou understand this means Prohibition, not merely NoLieense, in addition to tho usual local No-Licens-e issue as at present,_ but on a : bare majority vote, the two issues ' to be voted for on two separate ballot papers. , The remarkable _ feature of our movement is that, notwithstanding the intensity of feeling, which characterised the two and a half days' debate upon the compact, the matter was finally settled without a single defection from our body. That surely indicates our vitality and tie determination*.,of.our adherents inoti to letiiffliythingMwhatever stand between the people and their right to bo protected from the liquor evil."