LIQUOR REFERENDUM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 20, 18 October 1918, Page 6

LIQUOR REFERENDUM

ANGLICAN SYNOD ADOPTS ' LABOUR PLATFORM. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, October 17. At the Anglican Synod to-night the discussion was continued on the Rev. J. R. Hewland's - motion:—"That the Synod adopt the platform of the Labour Party, demanding a referendum on the liquor question on four points: —(1) National continuance; (2) immediate national prohibition with compensation; (3) immediate national prohibition without compensation; and (4) national ownership, those issues to be decided by preferential voting, with a single transferable vote," and the amendment moved by the Rev. H. H. Mathias that the National Efficiency Board's recommendation be adopted by Synod. i On a- vote being taken, the amendment was lost, and the niotion was carried, the voting being:—Ayes: Clergy 31, laity 22; noes, clergy 17, laity 12. A deputation waited upon Mr. A. H. Hindmarsh, M.P., last evening to present a petition bearing the signature of 4154 Wellington South electors, asking Parliament for a poll this year on the question of National Prohibition, in the terms of the Efficiency Board's recommendation. The deputation, introduced by Mr. H. G. Parkinson, M.A., consisted of Mesdames .Houlder, Evans, and Wright, Messrs. Fancourt, Drake, Bennett, Martin, and Hoaro. The Rev. Mr. Faucourt, speaking to the petition, referred to Mr. Himlniarsli's consistent support, both in and out of Parliament, of Temperance legislation and reform measures generally, and confidently anticipated their member's support to the granting of a poll this year on the question cf National Prohibition. The speaker noted that while State control might have been made an issue ten or twenty years ago, nothing was done with it until now, when the Trade brought it out as a side-issue to confuse the publie mind, or, peradventuro, to induce the State to accept the responsibility for its dying business. The preferential system of voting was warmly commended by the deputation as applied to Parliamentary elections, but its application to issues on a ballot paper that are diametrically opposed to each other in moral and principle was held to be a preposterous contradiction in terms. Mr. Hindmarsh, in replying, declared he was-one with the deputation and the four thousand petitioners they represented, in believing it to to in the best interests of New Zealand, to biinisli the liquor trade, and ho would certainly support a poll being 1 taken on the question, but believed that tlio more comprehensive ballotpaper asked for by the Labour Party, wherein four issues were submitted, was the better form for the proposal to take.