Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1920. SCOTTISH LIQUOR, POLL.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 December 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1920. SCOTTISH LIQUOR, POLL.

The local option poll which has just bden concluded in Scotland, is of special interest to New Zealand, remarks the Lyttelton T imqs, in that the system adopted presented many points of similarity to our own legislation on the subject. The law under which the poll was held is dated August 15th., 1913, and it provides that the law shall not come into operation until after the expiration of eight years from June 1, 1912. It was therefore not till June 1 of the present year that the law became, operative. The principal provisions of the Act are: —That a poll shall be held in any area where a petition is signed by 10 per cent of the registered voters; that the issues shall be: (1) no change ■ (2) reduction of eristing licenses by 25 per cent; (3) no license. A 55 per cent majority representing' not less than 35 per cent of the registered voters in the area is required to carry no-license; but if no-license is not carried, votes cast in favour of no license are allowed to count in favour of reduction. Even if n'o-license is carried in any area it Licensing Court has power to grant “one or more certificates for an inn or hotel” under proper safeguards that there is no drinking bar and that liquor is served only with meals. There were 1214 areas in Scotland, which had the right to call for a poll, hut contrary to all expectations less than half of these, 572 to be precise, qualified by petition for the holding of a poll. The polls were spread over a period of seven weeks, commencing with Glasgow' and many other towns on November 2, and winding up with Peterhead on December 21. Principal interest centred in the Glasgow results, for in Glasgow this year there has been a phenomenal increase in drunkenness, a fact of which great use has been made in the campaign. The Scottish Churches, or at least the Non-conformist section ot them, were officially in favour of nolicense, and of no-license as a. step on the path towards prohibition, but the ministers of even the Non-conformist Churches were by no means unanimous, not a few of them appearing on antiprohibition platforms. The American experiment was very fully canvassed during the campaign, and tho undemocratic character of prohibition in America was unmercifully exposed. The American theory that prohibition makes for increased efficiency was countered by references to the fact that in Russia prohibition was followed by revolution. The intervention of “Pussyfoot” Johnson was hold up to ridicule and resentment, and altogether there was a determined and hard-fought campaign. In Glasgow', where the no--1 irenso advocates expected to accomplish so much, thirty-seven areas -petitioned for a poll. Four of these areas “residential districts where the majority of the people did not use the puo-lic-houses,” “The Times” says carried no-license and nine carried reduction. The rest remained unchanged. The result was the cancellation of 99 out of 1604 licenses in the city, and several of these were grocers? licenses. In the poorest wards of the city there was a two-to-one majority in favour of “no change.” A recent cablegram giving the complete results for the whole of Scotland shows that 1,153,978 votes were registered of which 00 per cent went for “no change,” 38 per cent for no-license and 2 per cent for reduction. As the result of the poll 447 licenses will he cancelled, or a little over 1 per cent of the total number in Scotland, 9571. Manifestly Scotland does, not like no-license, even though under the British law no-licenße, when carried, , involved no ban against tho private consumption of liquor, tlie possession of liquor, the' sale of liquor for private consumption, or the transport and manufacture of liqu|or. The outlook is not very promising for the success of the “straight-out fight for prohibition” with which British prohibitionists threaten the country in the not distant future.