THE LICENSING ELECTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2213, 6 February 1886, Page 2

THE LICENSING ELECTION.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—ln your yesterday ,s issue appears a letter signed "Elector," which bears upon the above subject, and in which the writer takes the view that one section of the candidates proposed in connection with the ensuing election for the borough of Masterton consists of Monopolists and the other of Liberals, We, as teetotallers, claim to be neither the one nor the other. We are'anxious to put a stop to the liquor traffic, and in that respect, being of advanced views, might be termed Liberals, if anything at all. I do not believe in accommodation merely for the sake of getting liquor. Let those who are thinking of applying for new licenses keep on their houses as they are doing at present and the travelling portion of the public will have only themselves to blame if there is cause for complaint. We want to pet people away from hotels to hotises where no intoxicants are sold, and should, therefore, support the two houses if they will only remain as they are,. A. lot has

boon said about teetotallers and present publicans working together, and I have heard it called an "unholy alliance." Perhaps it is.on the one side. But the temperance section of, the community is surely justified in using any tool that offers itself to suppress drinking, and if the publicans joined with them, it would surely be foolish of them to refuse their aid;. Once this, vexed question of new houses is settled, we can resume our original crusade. Ido not believe a word of vhat "Elector" says about new houses causing no more drinking than they would cause more eating. Eating is a necessity, and drinking, to a great extent, a habit. •A man living away from an hotel will not drink nearly so much as another who lives next door.' lam, etc,, ■ Temperance.