PROHIBITION IN THE LEAD

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 146, 18 December 1919, Page 4

PROHIBITION IN THE LEAD

Prohibition leads at time of writing, and, whether in the end it wins or not, its opponents must concede that it has polled in the triple'issue far more solidly than they expected. According to the figures to hand as this article is being written—and all its deductions are subject to that limitation—2s,Boo people voted in the three Wellington City electorates, and only 2119 voted for State Puq:hase and Control. In Auckland the new proposal did worse. The three city electorates there isent nearly the same number of people to tho polls, but out of 24,800 liquor votes the number given for State Purchase and Control was only 985. In the three Wellington electorates the Prohibition vote was 4298 .behind the combined votes of Continuance and State Purchase and Control; in Auckland it I was only 196 behind. It therefore appears that the proposal to substitute the State for the publicans and the brewers has' not proved very much of a magnet; also, that Auckland is riding on something like a Prohibition wave as well as on an Official Labour wave. The net result of the Dominion voting is a Prohibition lead that can be wiped off, but which will take a great deal of wiping off. \ At this stage of the polling, Prohibition's' position is prospectively better than it was at a corresponding stage of the poliina: in the dual isisue of 10th April, 1919. It may be asked : Why is Prohibition polling better against Continuance in a 50.per cent, three-cornered right than in a 50 p?'.- rcu. dual issue? The answer probably is that on 10th April compensation turned away,, more Prohibition voles' than State Purchase and Control diverted yesterday. On 10th April the Prohibitionists were placed by their own leaders in tho position of accepting compensation to " the trade," or not voting. Yesterday they once more iuitl lliejil gh«iic-o to ettt-ry ncm.cßriijien* dated Prohibition, but with ijt Jha lura gt

State Purchase and Control. Apparently, they are equally averse both to coercion and to coaxing, and the outcome may be a generally unexpected Prohibition success, in conditions that appeared to be unfavourable. So uncertain, however] is the outlook, that it is of no use to pursure further a purely hypothetical line of reasoning.- If the poll of December, 1919, should result in putting an end to the ever-recurring liquor campaign, even Continuance voters will feel a certain relief, though not the sort of. relief they would have preferred. . But whether an electoral decision for Prohibition means the last of the liquor question, viewed as a social problem, is quite another question.