WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE LICENSING POLL. THE RESULT AND THE FUTURE. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Feb. 27. The result of the licensing poll held at the time of the general election has not yet been declared. It is known, of course, that Continuance and State Control, in combination, scored a small majority over Prohibition, but probably th-.- exact Jig-ires will not be announced till next week. The counting and recounting have occupied an unprecedented timer and there have been many rumor.-! .if informalities and irregularities' having been discovered, but so far as can be gathered from the. official* of the Electoral Department and the leaders of the contending parties there is little prospect of the result being seriously challenged. The Prohibitionists arc said to nave evidence of a number of cases of roll-stuff-ing and impersonation, but it is unlikely they will submit it to the decision of a court of law. The nan ber of votes at stake is not large enough to disturb the official return, and the mere reduction of the anti-J'rnliibition majority would serve no useful purpose

CONTINUING THE FIGHT. But the Prohibitionists, after a leisurely view of the situation, are by no means discouraged by their defeat. Thev are confident that'the progress their cause made between IU4 and l!)lfl will be continued and accelerated between 1020 and 1»22, and that with a clear-cut issue between Continuance and Prohibition, or even with the three issue baliot paper and preferential voting, they will be sure of success. They claim that the new House of Representatives is the most friendly one chey ever have had, and that it may be trusted to give them a "square deal" on the next appeal to the electors. They do not deny, by the way, that in the recent election camwiign, their sympathies lay largely with he Reformers. They U' not associate .hemselves with any Party organisation, but they regarded Mr. Massey as the author of (; o'clock closing, and were grateful accordingly. They retained the highest regard for Sir Joseph Ward personally and' politically, but they regretted the fact, as they now are putting it, of most of the champions of the liquor trade, gravitating towards his camp.

THE 'tRADE. - The friends of the Trade, nnd the Moderates, on the other hand, maintain that the Prohibitionists reached the very zenith if their voting strength at the last poll. They argue that a confusion of thought between war necessities v.nd peace efficiency led many people to vote for Prohibition ,vho never before. had favored this drastic measure. Added to this was the over-confidence of the Moderates that the voting of December would be simply a repetition of the voting of April and that no special effort on their part was required. That they miscalculated the strength of their opponents they frankly confess. Their policy for the future will be to purge the Trade of its admitted evils and to bring the electors to recognise the injustice of abolishing, without, reasonable compensation, r.. business that has been built up during a period of sixty or seventy years with the warrant and approval of 'the public All this suggests thai the Trade itself is no longer opposed to the idea of State Control.

PROBABLE LEGISLATION. Though the present Parliament will have to deal with the existing licensing law in one way or another before the next poll, the Government, is not likely to be in any hurry to tackle the problem. Mr. Massey, who, in view of the new conditions, should not be tied down too closely to anything he has said on the subject in the past, so far has not shown himself well disposed towards State Control. But any views he may hold on the extension of the State's activities in this direction need not prevent him from retaining the third issue on the ballot paper and submitting it to the electors under a system >f preferential voting. This would appeal to the democratic section of the community by giving all the parties the "square'deal""the Prohibitionists are expecting, and might finally dispose of the "proprietary interest," which, after all, has been the disturbing influence right through the long years of controversy, "