To all Electors.

Manawatu Herald, 25 November 1893, Page 2

To all Electors.

■ « Every " person 1 ' which -by '-« Th& Electoral Act 1893" includes women, is urgently requested to vote at the poll to be held on Tuesday next. We think we may safely assert that every woman is interested in the Liquor question, and it wholly depends upon whether ..she exercises her privilege at th« opportunity; whether she will have the power to exercise it on her second opportunity early nex.t year when the elections of committees under "The Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act 1898 " will be held. In the Electoral Act, clause 42 directs that the Registrar shall at any time, except during the interval between the issue of a writ and the completion of an election in the district, expunge from any roll of the district, the name of every person who, not being a candidate at an election occurring in the district at which a poll was taken, and not being prohibited by law from voting at such election, appears, from the certified electoral roll trans* mitted by the Returning Officer of the district, as hereinafter mentioned, not to have voted at such election. I It is well known that a very large number of women voters have been added to all the rolls in the colony, a number merely to enable them to

exercise some say in the Licensing business under the new Liquor Act, and therefore unless they record a vote on Trosday their names will be struck off before March next, and the Liquor ring will thus be rid of very troublesome opponents. The Liquor Act directs the Returning Officer of the licensing district to take a poll upon the question's set out in the Act dn some ohe day in March, and an elector is to mean an elector on the roll of electors for the time being in force for the election of a member of the House of Representatives. This, as we have before pointed out will be the purged roll with the names of all who have not voted on Tuesday expunged. It, is possible for the Government to delay the purging as the clause referring to the removal of names is worded " at any time " but if women do not poll well we may be sure that Mr Seddon will see that " at any time " is interpreted " before March " whereas if women poll well " at any time " may be read " after the Licensing Poll " as then it would be best for the interests of the " Trade " to leave every name upon the roll so that the required " one-half" of the electors needed to poll to prevent the poll being void, may be impossible to obtain. "At any time " appears a convenient form of words, but we advise women electors to put no faith in chance, but to make a strong effort to poll on Tuesday and thereby be safe to vote in March.