LICENSING LEGISLATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 53, 3 November 1913, Page 4

LICENSING LEGISLATION.

Discussing the Government’s licensing legislation, which is expected to recUife'Gie majority, required to cany national prohibition from GO to 55 per cent, the “Lyttelton Times” says . “It is interesting to remember that-the vote for the total exclusion of strong drink from the Dominion reached 55.83 per cent, in 1911. It was argued by the ‘Moderates’ at the time that a number of 'people had been misled by the wording of the voting paper and had voted for national prohibition under the impression that they were voting against it; but the evidence in support of this theory was far from conclusive, and, in any case, it seems reasonable to suppose that if mistakes were made on one side, they were also made on the other. The ‘Moderates’ would not care to admit that their supporters were loss intelligent or more careless than were their opponents. There | were more informal votes on the national issue than on the local issue, hut this does not necessarily mean that there were more mistakes in the valid votes. A careful investigation of the votes and of the surrounding circumstances goes to show, indeed, that many people who voted lor local continuance supported national prohibition under the conviction, it would seem, that it would he easier to exclude liquor from the Dominion than to limit its use in particular localities. Unless several thousand electors have changed their minds on this question since the last poll, the reduction of the required majority to 55 per cent will almost certainly result in the national issue being carried at the end of next rear.”