THE LICENSING POLL.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1922, Page 4

THE LICENSING POLL.

THE VOTING TO-DAY. THE POSITION (EXPLAINED. Simultaneously with the general election to-day the people will have an opportunity of recording their votes on the liquor question. <lt was provided under the Licensing Act, 1910, which initiated the referendum on national prohibition, that a vote in its favor would not be effective until practically 44 years later. Legislation was .passed in 1918 providing for a bare majority vote on prohibition with compensation and immediate enforcement. J’hat proposal was rejected at the poll in April, 1919, and the second part of the Act came into operation at the poll in December, 1919, enabling the electors to vote upon the alternatives of St.ate purchase and of prohibition without compensation, to become effective on June 30 following the date of the poll. To carry prohibition or State control either proposal must gain more than half the valid votes cast, that is, an absolute majority. Should neither proposal receive that majority, then continuance is carried, and matters remain as they are in licensed areas.

The restoration issue is to be placed before the electors in all no-license districts. These are:—Grey Lynn, Eden, Roskill, Ohinemuri, Masterton, Wellington South, Wellington 'Suburbs, Clutha, Ash'burton, Mataura, Oamaru, Invercargill. The district of Roskill, created by the revision of electoral boundaries following the census of 1916, is a nolicense area, as more than half its population is contained in the area formerly within the boundaries of Eden. It is the first “dry” district created by the revision of electoral boundaries. No-license was carried in Bruce in 1908, but that district is now included in the electorate of Clutha.