Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5. 1908. THE TWO ISSUES.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43384, 5 November 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5. 1908. THE TWO ISSUES.

7 his above all—to thine own self be true , And %t must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

There can be no doubt in the minds of reflecting people that the taking of the Local Option Poll on the same day, and practically in the same act as the recording of the electoral vote has a very great deal to commend it, although the system has, like all other systems, its critics. All great nation 1 questions, in being wrought up to a definite issue, and forced into concrete shape by a declared pub.iO opinion, tend to stimulate the public mind into a pronounced accession of purpose, and energy ; but at the same time the very process by which this accession of power and purpose is aroused and directed toward the settlement of these great questions, to a greater or less extent draws the public aside from the ordinary pursuits and business of life.

It is therefore highly expedient for the sake of industrial pursuits and of all the every day business of the Dominion, upon which as a people we depend for our very existence, that we should avoid so far as possible the obtrusion of stirring questions upon the public attention, more frequently than is necessary. Of course people will talk politics and License or No-License all tl e year round, and it is right and proper that they should ; but the ordinary discussion of greal questions is not calculated to arrest sensibly the ordinary business of life ; whereas the dual expenditure of public time and ener&y which would be involved in the taking of two separate polls upon questions which are now settled on the one day and in the one act, would certainly interfere with the conduct of industrial affairs.

Moreover, the increased expense which would be involved would be a very serioUs objection to any change in the matter of recording the two votes in the one day. And while, if we were in a more flourishing condition financially, we might not regard this aspect of the matter very seriously, yet with the crying necessity for retrenchment which is at present confronting us, it certainly would be ill-advised to go out of our way to court any added expense, Besides all this there is a feature peculiar to the No-License poll which makes it a positive advantage in yet another way to have it associated with the General Election, namely the great amount of voluntary labour which is available in assisting to purge the rol’s Nothing is more pressingly necessary at election times than that the Integrity of the rolls should be‘7.boye suspicion, and it is a known fact that through the very association of the No License issue with the ordinary issues of the Election, the State is accorded the gratuitous and most conscientious assistance of hundreds of her citizens in securing this integrity. To those who object that the takjng of both polls on the ope day means a confusion of issues, that the No-License question is ps it jyere a red herring across the track of the purely political issues at stake, we reply unhesitatingly that No-License is as much a political issue as land nationalisation, or the question of the Freehold. No-License is as much a matter of Econ >mics as of Ethics, (.no a voter has just as good a right to be influenced in casting his electors vote by the consideration as to whether a candidate is or is not in sympathy with No-License, as he has to be influenced by a candidates views upon the questions affecting Land Tenure, or Imperial Preference, or Labour Legislation. All that can be asked of any voter is that he shall vote according to persanal conviction-as to what is for the greatest good of the greatest lumber," remembering that in the aational life " every one is to count is one, and no one as more than me," and that therefore if he places ps own personal ink rest, in L py political issue, before the interests >f the community as a whole, he is) ounting himself as more than one,"» ipd abusing his vote. f k