THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY “Public Service” MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1949 NEARER, BUT NO CLEARER

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4103, 21 February 1949, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY “Public Service” MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1949 NEARER, BUT NO CLEARER

There was little more than a flicker of interest in the closing of the rolls in preparation for the two important licensing and gaming referendums. Judging by the general reaction since the Government’s decision to put the issues to a poll, it would have been surprising if there had been a late flood of applications. From now on till voting day there may be an attempt to whip up flagging public attention, but it will be hard going. It is a curious state of affairs. While drinking hours and gambling methods were the subject of inquiry by Royal Commissions interest was keen —keen enough to produce hours of evidence and reams of expensive reports and legal advice. The findings were eagerly awaited and discussed. But after the House had had its say the Government took so long to make up its mind the public found other things to think about. The final blow was the meek decision to “ pass the buck ” to the voters in a vague and disappointing form. No wonder people are apathetic about their right to vote. Now that they are to be placed side by side on the voting papers the two referendums have some contrasting and confusing features. On drinking hours' the voter is given the choice of a return to 10 o’clock closing, which the older voters will remember, but a large proportion of the younger ones will not, though many of them may have been influenced by drinking habits experienced overseas. There is no such precedent in the gaming referendum. Something entirely new is being suggested with controlled off-course betting, but without a clear-cut alternative. The nigger in the gaming woodpile is the bookmaker, and the voter cannot feel very confident whichever way the result goes that the nigger will be banished. Polling day is sure to lack the strong flavour of politics and party, But it would have been sharpened considerably if the Government had, by adding, a referendum on the far more controversial issue of capital punishment, risked a public expression of opinion that it had made a bad legislative blunder.