THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3834, 17 June 1891, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Published by the courtesy of the Editor of Wairarapa Daily uridel- the allspices of the Neio Zealand Alliance for the prohibition of the liqiior traffic, Masterton Auxiliary.

When ratepayers demand the entire extinction of all places for tlic sale of liquorsiheirprayer should be granted. —Charles Buxton t Brewer,

[Communications tor this column roust be addressed to " The Prohibitionist,' care of Editor of Wairaeapa Daili.]

Judge Dennistori, in his judgment on the Sydenham Licensing Election, brushes aside the "No Returning Officer" plea as little better than a piece of legal quibbling. The election there was fought fair and square between Publican and Prohibitionist. The ratepayers by an overwhelming vote declared against the Publicans ; and placed men pledged to carry out the wish of the people on the Licensing Bench. The publicans, in their distress, sought consolation from the legal fraternity ; and they did not go in vain. The legal fraterity consulted together and soon filled the publicans with new hope and life. The discovery of these wise men was in substance as follows: " The vote of two thirds of the people is in the recent election worthless- Parson Isitt and his fanatical followers are not really members of the Licensing Bench. Parson Isitt and Go's seats on the bench depend on the vota of the people; the vote of. the people depends on the returning officer ; and the returning officer's existence depends on a thousand and one legal technicalities which have in this election been ignored." The situation as thus depicted by the lawyers is analgous to that depicted in the old story. Three bibulous gentlemen stood at midnight on a bridge and wisely agreed that the reflection of the moon on the water was a valuable green cheese. They agreed at once to a plan of capture. No. 1 clung to the edge of the bridge with his hands. No. 2 "climbed down" No. l's body aud clung to his heels. No. 3 followed in the same waj and got within reach of the imaginary green cheese, when No. 1, feeling the strain somewhat severe, shouted out "Hold on till I epic on my hands J" The spluttering, splashing, and yelling that followed was alarming. The "cheese" remained stationary.; but the trio went straight on. The Sydenham legal fraternity's plan of campaign was similar. "We'll knock the Returning Offioer" over the knuckles; cause him to let go bis hold ; and deposit the popular vote and the Prohibitionists in the ditch." Such was the golden consolation that the Sydenham publicans received.

This golden consolation given to the' Publicans was argued at great length before Judge Dennis ton by Messrs Harper, Fishe: and Stringer. The supreme importance of a legally qualified Returning Officer was never more emphasised in a Court of Law, The speeches of the learned three bristle with reference to Regina versus Blackburn and Regina versus scores of other people. The gist of the argument maybe given in the words of Mr Harper '"He submitted that the " bottom was knocked out " of the whole proceedings because the Governor had not appointed a local body to appoint a Returning officer." Judge Denniston, 'however, in his judgment," puts his foot through the lath and plaster of the elaborate legal quibbling of Messrs Harper, Fisher, and Stringer. To use the words of Mr Harper he, in a very sharp way, "knocks the bottom out" of the golden consolat\qn that the publioan* had received. "The Returning Officer," he said, "had held the office and performed the duties tor eight years. Plaintiffs' licenses were granted by a Committee returned by him ; the election had been held in due course as prescribed by the Act, and there were no suggestions of any impropriety or irregularity. It would he an extraordinary and very unsatisfactory result if the title of the Committee could now be successfully attacked Qn a technicality, unearthed as a last resource by the ingenuity of counsel. What a rope of sand then did the -Sydenham publicans cling to ! The no Returning Officer's plea was a " technicality unearthed as a last resource by the ingenuity of counsel 11"

The election then, of the Sydenham Prohibitionists, was not declared void. Bi-t in the event of the prayer of the publioana being granted how would their position be improved 1 The law is, that the Licensing genoU is appointed by the vote of ratepayers. In the event of an election being declared void on a legal technicality this would take place ; there would either be a fresh election when the same men would be Returned, or the advisers of the Governor would recommend men to fill the bench. What sort of man would the advisers of the Governor recommend? The men approved by the public or the men approved by the publicans 1 The temperance cause has been greatly helped by the Sydenham victory. But even if it had resulted in a temporary defeat it would have been a ■ vietory all the same. If the election had been declared void ; if the vote of the people had been ignored; if by wire pulling the nominees of the publicans had been placed on the bench ; if the door had been opened for the entrance of political dishonesty, then, disastrous as has been the present defeat to the Sydenham publicans, each a victory would have been to them ten thousand times more disastrous. When the people see a "Whisky Ring" plainly at work Imperial prohibition will not be far away,

The Prohibition agitation is spreading over the Wairarapa. In a recent issueof the Carterton Observer a leader appeared which clearly declared for Prohibition. The article incidentally refutes the publicans' plea that the license fees are gifts to a community, and lighten the burden of taxation. We extract the following :—«« This year, throughout the Colony, for the first time in its history, the fight between the publicans and the prohibition party has taken definite form. From this year, 1991, until the sale of intoxicating liquors is m?de unlawful, and its importation or manufacture a crime against the State, it is our firm conviction the struggle will continue, The temperance prinpiples are being accepted by oue growing youth, and that drunkenness is looked upon as degrading, is due, without doubt, to the free education of the people. But they have got a stuge further than this now —the people have hitherto been blindel by the forty guinea licensee fee, which, lias been shook in -their faces.- They were frightened at the thought of losing that, buc the temperance agitators have been active ot late. Tbey have been striking a balance, and publishinga statement of

assets and liabilities, and they show that/or every £4O received in. license fees £IOO goes out for the support of drunkenness. It is to this newly gained experience and other cuses that the people are becoming alive to I their duties and privileges on the licensing question."