LICENSING ELECTIONS.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 335, 29 February 1884, Page 2

LICENSING ELECTIONS.

Fob the first year of its existence the Local Option Act was practically a dead letter as far as the peeple were concerned who had clamored for it till it was supposed that they weye on the point of taking up arms to enforce their demands. For a year they rested on their oars contented with having got their pet Bill, carried. This year, however, witnesses a revived practical ini tier'ei?t r ''itl '-the cause of Temperance. Instead of telegrams stating that three persons voted, or that there were only two nominations, we read of animated contests in every direction and of stveral heavy and decisive victories for the I lue Itibbon. In Auckland the excitement is said to have approached that of a general election. The teetotallers had organised carefully beforehand, and were so delighted that they have printed c^rds or paper medals to l - commemorate the event. In several other places a con,sid,er:,able proportion of the ratepayers turned up at the' polling place. In Dunedin, M* 1 Stout headed the move•nienfcj ! aiid the result was that threefourtns of the city were parried by the teetotallers, whose platform was ten o'clock licenses all round. This seems to have been' the' chief cry throughout the colon y. It is believed that the enforcement of this closing hour upon all alike -will lead to eases of great per? sonal loss, besides seriously diminishing the revenue of the several towns. We confess that we cannot but be alarmed at the power that teetotal fanaticism may put into the hands of unreasonable and unreasoning men. No better example of that fanaticism could be found than in the action of the Jnvercargill " Gospel Temperance Union " in trying to discard Mr Craig, the best man standing, as being a publican's man. "When fairness and Moderation, as represented by Mr Craig, are to be blackballed in favor of zeal without knowledge, we think it is time to be alarmed, $,