THE TAURANGA ELECTORATE AND NO-LICENSE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43381, 3 October 1908, Page 3

THE TAURANGA ELECTORATE AND NO-LICENSE.

To the Editor.

Sir’—The burning question now is, .“Will No-License be carried in the Tauranga Electorate ?” Frankly, I believe it will, and by a big majority. In Te Aroha I may safely say there will be a majority for continuance, but in Waihou, Te Aroha West, Shaftesbury, Manawaru, Gordon, Waharoa, and Matamata, I know for certain there will be a big majority for No-License. Quite disinterested people have told me that Te Puke, Tauranga, Te Puna, Otumoeti, VI amaku, are going strong for it. So I think it is all up with the open bars in this electorate. The No-License agitator never miss an opportunity of decryings the “moderate drinker.” Well, it is the noderate drinker that carries ‘No-License, because when all is said and done there are very few genuine total abstainers tmong the No-License leaders. The great majority of them drink like fishes if some one else pays for the liquor. I have seen them here in Te Aroha, men agitating No-License in the neighbouring districts and swilling beer and whisky in Te Aroha if they could find anyone to shout , for them. The great body of moderate J drinkers are going to vote No-License in • Tauranga, not that it believes in NoLicense, but to bring about such a state of affairs in this electorate that there will j have to be a reformation in the Licensing laws. No man in his senses oan think that Te Aroha would be just as good a tourist resort without the Hot Springs and the Palace Hotel (licensed). We only want to close the bars they say. Turn them into Boarding-houses! Who would stay in a boarding-house that could afford to stay in such houses as the above, unequalled in New Zealand, But they will have to go. Te Aroha get ready for three years of No-License, because the doom of the license is writ, the hypocrites claim a victory, but one often loses a pawn to gain a king.—l am, etc.

TEMPERANCE,