LOCAL OPTION IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13910, 8 December 1910, Page 6

LOCAL OPTION IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

There was no indecent haste about the j completion of the local option returns j in Now "south Wales. Tho poll was j he'd on October 1-lth, and the final ; return came to hand on .November j _3rd. The delay may perhaps be duo j in part to geographical reasons, for the ; western district of the State is a | land of magnificent distances and only j scanty means of communication. Now | that it is possible to compare the com- i plete returns with those of 1907, it is : moro easy to recognise how great has been the change in public opinion. Three years ago reduction was carried in sixty-four of the ninety electorates, this year it was carried in only fourteen, and of these fourteen only ono represented a change from continuance, while of the seventy-six districts in which continuance was carried fifty-one had previously votelT for reduction. Of the fifty-two electorates in which there was a change, only ono turned over towards the No-license party. The solitary victory of the latter was won with a majority of twentyeight votes out of a total poll of over 5,000 votes, whereas many of tho successes on the other side wero gained by majorities varying from 1000 to over 2000 votes. The total votes cast for continuance numbered 327,8*25, for reduction 38,185, and for No-license 218,813, and yet only 66.7 per cent, of the electors voted This is an improvement, by 5 per cent., over the proportion in 1907, but remembering the very solid voting that takes place in New Zealand on this question, it is curious to not© the moderate voting in New South Wales. The highest percentage of electors who voted in any ono district was 77.9, but in forty-six electorates the percentage was between 60 and 70, and in eleven it was under CO. The lowest was in The iJiurray, where only 19 per cent, of the electors went to tho poll, and next to it came Cobar. with 22.6 per cent., the reason For this extraordinarily low poTTing being that in • neither of these electoratea was thero any political contest. The votes for continuance were over 120,000 more than in 1907, and those for No-license nearly 43,000 more. Botfi sides claim the ~victor~ but thoi more solid results seem to bo with the opponents of No-license, who can hardly be said to havo polled their full strength, as long as one-third of theelectors failed to record their opinions.