The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, JULY 31 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3874, 31 July 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, JULY 31 1891.

The Temperance party has put five candidates in the-field for the licensing election, and the Licensed Victuallers' party is supposed to have nominated an equal number. The former is represented by the Editor of our Prohibitionist column, and the latter by Mr A. Walker, the Secretary of the Moderation Committee. H would perhaps be rude for us to enquire what a Moderation Committee is or who appoints it, but are we to assume that the candidates themselves are, one and all, "dumb dogs" who cannot speak for themselves.but must be worked like Marionettes by tbe Editor of the Prohibitionist on the one hand and the mysterious Secretary of a still more mysterious Committee on the other? We have placed an open column freely at the disposal of the belligerents on either side, but tbe result has been not quite all that is needed. The ratepayers must vote on one side or the other and we would like the issue to be as clear and distinct as possible. If tbe Prohibition candidates are elected, do they intend to close all houses or none, and if the Moderate candidates are elected, do they consider that six licensed houses are too many for tbe Borough, or not enough. We, perhaps, know pretty well the lines Prohibitionists are likely to take, but we are in the dark as to tbe opinions of so-called Moderate candidates. Are they favorable to ten, eleven, or twelve o'clock and d ° the . v consider that all the houses 2:? w m Masterton are conducted satisfactorily. We have no objection to the Prohibitionist Editor laying down the law and flaying his enemies, or even to the mysterious Committee indulging in virtuous indignation, but if the candidates on either side are something more than amiable and ornamental marionettes, they should tell the ratepayers directly what they propose doing if they are elected. It is now their turn to speak t