38 YEARS "DRY"

Evening Star, Issue 24990, 8 October 1943, Page 2

38 YEARS "DRY"

INVERGARGILL MAY REVERT TO LICENSE SERVICEMEN'S VOTE COULD TIP BALANCE With a deficit of only 322 votes to secure restoration, and a fairly heavy soldier's vote to come, Invercargill may end its 38 years' " drouth." Invercargill "went dry" as a result of the voting at the election in December, 1905. Enforcement was not brought about, however, until Juno 30, 1906. On that day the 17 hotels in-Invercar-gill with licenses closed their premises for the purpose of selling liquor for the last time. Ten o'clock closing of hotels was in operation at the time, not 6 o'clock closing, which was introduced just after the last war. At the poll on the issue in 1938 the restoration supporters scored their biggest success. In a valid poll of 14,075 votes, 8,146 were cast for Restoration and 5,929 for No-license. Those figures show a majority of 2.217, but they fell short by 299 votes of the number required (8,445) to carry Restoration. Of the valid votescast, 57.8 per cent, of the voters were in favour of Restoration and 42.1 per cent, were in favour of No-license. The official count of the votes in the 1943 local option licensing poll for Invercargill and the counting of absentee and postal votes were completed by the returning officer and his staff last evening. The result of tho complete count is as follows: Restoration 7,194 No-license 5,334 Bare majority for restoration ... 1,860 Deficit for restoration on threefifths majority 322 The counting of the absentee and postal votes gave the following results : Absentee. Postal. Totals. Restoration 401 216 617 JNo-license 181 215 396 j The figures show that the.restoration deficit of 361 votes on the first count has been reduced by 39 votes. When the absentee votes had been counted the deficit was reduced to 279, but in turn the postal votes, which were almost equally divided, increased the deficit. The servicemen's votes, which have yet to be included, are estimated to total between 1,450 and 1,500. In the figures so far announced for the voting in the national licensing poll the soldiers' votes for continuance and State control represented approximately 90 per cent, of the votes cast. If it is assumed that the voting on the local option issue will reveal a similar proportion, the chances of licenses being restored in Invercargill cannot be disregarded. DUNEDIN SOUTH FIGURES The official count of the votes in the licensing poll in Dunedin South resulted as follows: j National continuance ... 6.464 j State control 925 National prohibition ... 4,744 I Informal 148 ' Total ... :.. 12.281