WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, 24 December 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE LIQUOR REFERENDUM. THE SOLDIERS’ VOTE. Wellington, December 23. The Acting Prime Minister received on Saturday what described itself as an unofficial deputation from the Returned Soldiers’ Association and the Second Division League, consisting of the two presidents of these bodies, to urge that New Zealand soldiers abroad should have the fullest facilities for voting in the liquor referendum. They suggested that every soldier should have posted to him a vot-ing-paper and an explanatory leaflet and that the possession of a pay-book should entitle him to vote. The Minister did not commit himself to the adoption of the deputation’s suggestions, but he promised that every effort would be made to enable the soldiers to exercise their rights as electors. It might not be possible to reach, every man in the Expeditionary Force, but that would he the goal at which the authorities would aim. THE ALLIANCE VIEW. The officials of the New Zealand Alliance declare themselves to'be just as anxious as the presidents of the Returned Soldiers’ Association and the Second Division League are to see every absent soldier recording Ms vote. This is not a question of ad* vantage to one side or the other, they j say, hut a question of right and jusj tice. They have taken, it for granted, i however, that the Minister would i ’ 1 take every possible measure to ensure j the soldiers being fully informed as j to the issues at stake and having ade- | quate facilities for voting. They also ; have presumed that active propaganda j work and the distribution of party | literature at the front would not he ! allowed by the military authorities, i and they are quite content that the soldiers should vote without interfer-. ence from either side. THE PARTY TRUCE, Several southern members of Par- ' liament spending their Christmas ■ holidays in Wellington have expressj ed themselves strongly of opinion that I the “party truce” should be renounced i and the National Cabinet dissolved as ; speedily as possible after the return of the party leaders to the Dominion, The original agreement was that the truce should continue till the end of the war, and in the ordinary course it would expire automatically on the j signing of the treaty of peace; hut ; the party caucuses prolonged the term. | to cover the absence of Mr Massey | and Sir Joseph Ward, presuming this | would extend beyond the official declaration of the cessation of hostilities. The southern members, representing both sides of politics, insist there can be no further extension without entering into a fresh compact, and to this they are unanimously opposed. STATE MONOPOLIES. Members of the Labour Party are very jubilant over the Hon. G. W. Russell’s statement in Christchurch to the effect that the State should assume a monopoly of the' sale of certain commodities, such as tobacco and petrol, and while supplying them to the consumers and users at lower prices than they are being paid now make a substantial profit itself. They profess to regard this as an admission’ by the Minister that all they have been saying in regard to the excessive cost of living is correct and that their remedy for the evil is the only one he can see. Mr Russell, who returned to Wellington yesterday, is not perturbed by the jubilation of the critics of the Government. He has been preaching the gospel of State 00-opration for years, he says, and has nothing he ever said on the subject to retract.