WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 April 1919, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

LICENSING POLL. CONTINUANCE ASSURED(SpeciaI Correspondent.) Wellington, April 13. The soldiers' votes already received make it practically certain that when they all are available the Prohibition majority recorded on Thursday will be turned into a minority of several thousands. The precise .margin is still a matter of speculation, estimates varying from two thousand to ten, but even the most optimistic of the Prohibitionists has abandoned all hope of a victory. The men in hospital and in depots at Home, instead of voting in the proportion of two-thirds for Continuance and onethird for Prohibition, as was the general expectation, appear to have voted in the proportion of three to one, and there is no reason to suppose that the men on sliiribnnrd will be less decisive in their prism..,® for the maintenance of the status ftior

THE NEXT CONTEST. The Prohibition leaders are frankly accepting defeat and making preparations for the next contest. They allege that one of the chief causes of dissatisfaction ir. their own ranks during the recent campaign was the provision for payment of compensation to the Trade Many of them believe that without this provision a substantially larger vote would have been cast for Prohibition. They are not all of this opinion, but they are all entering upon the new effort with astounding enthusiasm. Abundant funds are available, and the organisation is to be kept at its full fighting strength. It is [ anticipated that t,he general election, with which the licensing poll will ba held, will take place in October or November, and by that time the absent soldiers' votes will play a much less important part in the result.

THE THREE ISSUES. As far as ran be gathered at this sta»o the Prohibitionists are by no means unanimous in d3manding preferential voting in connection with the three-issue ballot. Many of them, indeed, are as emphatic in their opposition to State Control as they are to Continuance, and would find it extremely difficult to reconcile some of their utterances during the recent campaign -with a demand for this halfway house as an alternative to Prohibition. But there can be no possible doubt that there is a growing feeling in favor of State Control among the great body of unattached electors, and that either side in the recent contest might have this measure of Reform if it chose to employ its disciplined forces in obtaining it.

THE PARTY LEADERS. Though Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward have pencilled berths by the steamer booked to leave Vancouver on June 21 it by no means follows as a matter of certainty that they will return to New Zealand by that boat. Their movements must depend, of course, upon the progress of the business they went Home to watch on behalf of the Dominion. Sir Joseph Ward being a member of the British Delegation to the Peace Conference may find it even more difficult than Mr Massey will to get away. But in official circles here it is expected the Ministers will be in Wellington before the end of July, and that following on a short session of a couple of months or so the general election wlil take place towards the end of October or early in November.