THE LICENSING POLL.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1919, Page 5

THE LICENSING POLL.

PROHIBITION LEAD REDUCE©. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, La/t NightIncomplete licensing poll returns from Westland reduce the prohibition lead to 419. No other figures are available. PROPAGANDA WORK AMONGST TROOPS.

Received April 14, 7.35 p.m. London, April 12. An insignificant number of New Zealand soldiers failed to poll. There was a certain amount of propaganda work, ineluding a number of motor cars running between London headquarters and the depots, carrying banners inscribed: "New Zealand Soldiers, Vote To-day for Liberty." The prohibitionists were also busy seeking out their adherents. Considerable resentment was shown at the vote being taken in New Zealand while the soldiers were absent.

Sir Thomas Mackenzie's arrangements ensured that every man in the hospitals and camps had an opportunity to vote. — Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assoc.

AUSTRALIAN COMMENTS. Sydney, April 14. The Herald, in a leader, says that all preconceived ideas about the progress of prohibition in New Zealand have- been shattered by the vote taken last week. It is well within the margin of truth to Bay that the surprise of the prohibitionists in the Dominion is no greater than t!ie astonishment of the other side. The prohibitionists expected to win by a substantial majority, and their opponents, if not exactly expecting defeat, certainly counted on it being a possibility. It is, however, not only in regard to the fate of the immediate issue; that the party organisation has shown it judged the public mind rather mistakenly, but the figures disclose, what in all probability not a fraction of the community expected to learn, this is that during the last eight years the strength of the prohibitionists has been stendily waning, not only relatively to the votes cast, but actually, and the vote for liquor gathering strength. Dealing with, soldiers' votes, the paper points out th/t it is not the vote of irresponsible yotith using the franchise for the first time in a spirit of levity. The Dominion army abroad is composed of men up to forty, a large proportion married men with families—in every sense the flower of the country's manhood. Yet three out of four voted against prohibition. Does aiiy reason exist for assuming their vote is not the reflex of the vote cast by New Zealand men generally arguing that compulsory prohibition is vastly more favored by women than men. The Herald adds: Tt would be disturbing to think of the possibilities of prohibition beinp; carried by a bare majority in a country where three out of four men were in" the minority. Most people will, we think, admit this, and further will concede that superficially the position in New Zealand is open to the interpretation of being based on a conflict between the sexes.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Association.