MR ISITT'S POSITION.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15139, 1 December 1914, Page 8

MR ISITT'S POSITION.

PRACTICE AND PRECEPT. In connexion with Mr Isitt's anomalous position at the present time, wo reprint that part of his speech at the big No-licenso gathering in Dunedin on June oth, 1913, as reported in the "Otago Daily Times," in which he dealt with liis attitude towards politicians. The first part of the speech was an attack on strong drink. The report proceeds :— Mr Isitt went on to say that the Temperance Party worked on honest lines. It never circulated statements on the morning of the election and left no opportunity of replying to them. The Temperance Party was, in fact, handicapped by its honesty. He believed in the right of the majority to determine an issue, and lie wanted' this battle decided on equal terms. He was prepared to vote for any decent man who was opposed to him in general politics if he knew that that man would take this handicap off the people.- (Applause.) Mr Isitt then proceeds, according to the report, to make a further attack on the ovils of drink, and concluded: Therefore, let them say to their politicians, "WE DO NOT CAKE WHAT YOUR CREED IS. Wo want this drink traffic out of the way,-and we want the right to deal with it on the same basis as wo deal with every other question in this democratic country." (Applause.) The following motion was then put lto the meeting and carried: — That this meeting demands from Parliament the untrammelled right to determine the question of the continuance of the liquor traffic by tho simple majority of the votes of tho people, as is done in the case of all other public questions. TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PnEfiS." Sir, —In your Saturday's issiio I notice a disclaimer, signed by the President and Secretary of the Kaiapoi Nolicenso_ League, that Mr Herps had the authority of the League to express an opinion on Mr Isitt's action in supporting a 60-JO majority man as against a bare majority man, and while they state that Mr Herps merely expresses his own opinion, they carefully refrain from committing themselves. Now, Sir, it is high time that we had a definite expression of opinion on tho matter the League. At a meeting held in Kaiapoi a month or so bade, the chairman of the League begged all present to sink political differences and vote for the man who would give the greatest concession to the Prohibitionists. Is tho silence of the League to be interpreted to mean that Mr Isitt's action is approved, and that the "cause" is to be betrayed to party politics? If it is, then Mr Editor, we must question tho sincerity of those who profess to have made prohibition their one object, in life, and such being tho case, I, for one. and my wife for another, will cast our votes against them, though they would have been cast for them. Let us have no more shuffling, but a straisrht-out opinion one wav or the other. Either the League is rail-sitting or it does not approve. Which is it? Yonrs. etc.. . KAIAPOI ELECTOR. November 30th.