PROHIBITION AND DEPRESSION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3020, 17 October 1908, Page 5

PROHIBITION AND DEPRESSION.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Some little time ago the Masterton Borough Council struck a water rate apparently in a hurry. Notices in pursuance thereof were promply issued, tfte result of which would have been the collecting of something between £250 and £3OO more money from the ratepayers than had been collected in the previous year. The receipt of the rate notices caused .something of a panic. Startled ratepayers were to be seen Sucking in and out of each other's shops and comparing notices in Queen Street with great earnestness; in fact, this writer has 110 c seen such a commotion since the morning when a Dig earthquake stirred things up in ihe town. A little later, three pale faced Councillors were, seen coming from the Council Chambers, and the 'Morning Age" had a local announcing a special meeting of the Council, at the request of three Councillors. At that Special Meeting the worthy Mayor and a number ot his faithful followers passed a rapid motion agreeing to collect a portion only of the rate struck. This was done nor.e too soon, as already more than one Councillor had been invited out to A simmering movement for calling an indignation meeting was suggested, and sever il prominent citizens, with "a stakes i.i the town," had threatened to leave, and as=ign their property to the bewildered Council. The local papers wrote leading articles with scare headings, and correspondents predicted a financial panic, and altogether the Councillors just managed to scramble out of the ruins of a tottering city, seething with righteous indignation ! All this was the result of .trying to collect between £250 and £3OO more in the shape of a water rate than war! collected last year. In the light ofjthe foregoing, it might be interesting to ask what will happen if No-License is carried in Masterton? The Borough Council will lose over £3OO in License fees in one hit. Six fine hotels will be shut up in Qi-3 j .n Street, or turnaci into dismal Boardinghouses. An already over rated town will have to find another £3OO a year, and if the people continue to leave Masterton at the rate they are doing at present, twenty-five per cent, of the houses will be empty. This writer has two cottages empty already out of four, and if No-License is . carried he will not be surprised to see another also to-let. Masterton will resemble one long Sunday with a big general, water, drainage, and special loan rata, and only a row of empty ho\ise3 to pay them with. About then, Masterton will be a good place to be away from.—l am, etc., A.H. i (To the Editor)."

Sir,—Several things constrain me to ask you to kindly allow me space in you widely read columns for a certain matter pertaining to the right of individuals to vote at elections when they are absent from the electorate in which they are under ordinary circumstances domiciled, and whose names appear on the rolls as electors. Of course, it is a dictum of the law courts that we are all supposed to know the law even if in one session of Parliament our representatives enact only one hundred new laws. All this is by the way of prelude. I am, like many more, in the unenviable position of being a wanderer and having no settled abode for some time, like unto seamen, commercial travellers, and shearers —who it is well-known can by law procure some dispensation without money and without price to allow them to exercise the francise on behalf of whom, or what cause they desire to uphold. Being in some perplexity as to the position, and being naturally of philanthropic proclivities, I asked certain dignatories as to the position, but like an agnostic they did not know. I then essayed to consult the fountain bead in matters electoral, and I found that I could procure the right to cast my vote in the electorate notwithstanding my temporary absence from it. To all who are in the same position, I ask you to give this information. —1 am, etc, ONE WHO WAS IN DOUBT.