NO-LICENSE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 255, 21 July 1908, Page 10

NO-LICENSE.

THE BABE MAJORITY QUESTION. ■ A Press telegram roceiml from Christ--clnirch ; ■ .states : that :■ a WoUinjtan correspondent has misrepresented tho position of the prohibition party in saying that members of Parliament liad been requested to support, the three-fifths majority. A reporter saw quite a number of members yesterday, ■ind'ond and all without exception stated thatthprq was not tho■ slightest misrepresentation in regard to tho position.- In ovorv caso tho members referred to are men who supported the. party at tho last election. It is ; unnecessary to, givo tho whole of tho opinions,, but thoso of two representative men from the North and a few from tho South Island will suffico. /,! Tho first member interviewed said: "I am afraid our prohibitionist friends have very short memories. -If they cast their minds hack, they will recollect that in' tho'last Parliament an attempt was mado to alter tho Liconsing Act in some very important particulars—and by a' Govsmment measure. ; It was proposed to extend tho term of the'local, option poll to six years. It was also proposed in No-Liconse districts to giv.o tho police powor,to entor private houses in cases wlioro they believed liquor .was kept. Whin it came to the 'election, people who bqlioved in ' No-liiccnso , were naturally afraid the attack- would--; bo; renewed after the election, and. the pledge that was. oxtractod-from most of tho candidates at the last election was that they would , stand by tho principles of tho present law, and especially tho three-fifths majority and tho tiiroe ■years' term. Another North- Island member Who,, supported prohibition at tho last olection was, most decided on the point.' "Certainly," ho said, "I was .asked to''support-'the threefifths majority._ I was never asked to support a bare majority; and would nover do so. .1 am convinced the party is now making a, great mistako in advocating that,i and it .'will ■result in the loss of- a great deal'of sympathy and .support." , Yet another' North Island'member, himself a prohibitionist and a liberal' subscriber to the fund, said ho was pledged to tho threefifths majority.. The first South Island member spoken to said: "Cortainly .the reouest was to support tho law as it' sto'od. The : Prohibition party was afraid there might bo a danger of their getting something worse."- ,• ■ i ■ . Another South Islander corroborated this statement. He hails from a district in which the Prohibition vote is a very largo ono. Nevertheless, ho will not support baro majority. It would, lie says, result, in chaos. The voto of one man or ono girl might make a-change in a district. Next election a similar vote might again turn the scale the other way. . 1 ~ A third South Island M.P. said lie was pledged to. the three-fifths majority. He ridiculed the movement in favour of a bare majority. . One member said he did not think there would bo found in a House of eighty members more than twelve or fifteen who really favoured the bare majority.,