LICENSE LAW IN QUEENSLAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9602, 23 September 1909, Page 3

LICENSE LAW IN QUEENSLAND.

A New Zealand young lady, who is at present residing in Queensland, in writing to a friend in Ashburton, has something to say about the Licensing Act, by which the liquor traffic is controlled in the State, says an Ashburton paper. As she is a New Zealander and an earnest No-license worker, the Queensland Act seems strange and absurd to her. The Act provides for a poll in any district upon a petition signed by one sixth or more of the settlers residing in that district being presented to the chairman of the shirs in person. In the district in which the young lady lives two such petitions were recently 1 presented—one by the Licensed Victuallers and another by the No-license party. The Act allows the petitioners to define the area ovtr which the vote is to be taken and this accounted for the two petitions. The publicans asked for a vote over township sections only, which would have given them certain victory, but this did not suit the No-license party, which petitioned for a poll over a much larger area. The No-license petition reached the chairman at midnight and the other was handed in the following morning. The chairman tried to get out of a difficult position by calling for a poll over both areas, but the No-license party ap plied for a mandamus restraining him from doing so, and the magistrate gave judgment in the favour of the No-license party. The contest which followed was a very close one, but by a majority of four votes the people decided in favour of closing the hotels The poll is effective for two years, after which another vote must be taken.