TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Mataura Ensign, 14 October 1911, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by Arrangement with the Mataura and Wakatipu Electorate Temperance Council. THE LICENSING POLL. THE ISSUES AND THE METHOD OF VOTING. 1. A vote on local no-license will be taken. 2. There will be no power to vote Reduction, that proposal having been cut out. 3. A vote on national prohibition will bo taken. •1. The no-license and prohibition votes will be taken on separate ballot papers, which will be distinct in color (pink for the local issue and .buff for the national issue, and all will be counted quite independently of each other. The voting on the one issue will have absolutely no effect on the voting on tho other. 5. No-license will come into effect on July 1, 1912, in each electorate which obtains a three-fifths majority in favor of that proposal, whether national prohibition is carried or not. 6. National prohibition will come into force in four years after the date on which the election is taken, if that proposal obtains a three-fifths majority of all the votes given on the national issue over the whole Dominion. 7. National prohibition will remain in force until a three-fifths majority vote is given for national restoration. 8. The national restoration issue will not be submitted to the voters until national prohibition has been in force three full years a nor until the general election following, which really means five years of prohibition. 9. If national prohibition is carried there will be no licensing poll taken until the national restoration issue is submitted to the electors. 10. After national prohibition comes into effect "it shall be unlawful for any person to import into New Zealand or to manufacture, sell, or have in his possession for the purpose of sale intoxicating liquors of any description." Special exceptions are made for intoxicating liquors for medicinal, scientific, sacramental and industrial purposes. 11. N.B.—Electors have the power to j vote for no-license in their own electorates as in the past, and, in addition, for national prohibition. STRIKE OUT THE TOP LINE ON BOTH BALLOT PAPERS. MY NATIVE LAND. (By A. S. Adams.) These 1 beautiful isles of the sea! I have visited other lands and held converse with many who have travelled over the world, and nowhere have I seen or heard tell of a land which appears to me so full of the grandeur, dignity, beauty and wonder of nature in all her moods as this lovely land of ours. An emerald set in a crystal sea, her coasts enclose all that is desirable to satisfy the most poetic and artistic mind as well as the most practical. Nature is at her best, and gives with abundant generosity of ' all her stores of wealth and joy. Wc j people of New Zealand, one and all, have a deep and abiding love for the old Mother Land and treasure her honor as our own. But the first love of our hearts is for the country of our birth or adoption. Every true man and woman among us, young or old, rich or poor, stands ready to make sacrefieces if need be for the fair, good land in which it is our happiness to dwell. We are a nation in the making, and this high office is ours, to see that the foundations are laid deep and strong in honor and righteousness. The opportunities before the people of New Zealand are unique. Our country stands apart. Our institutions and traditions are the institutions and traditions of a great and free people. We possess tho power to make our own laws, and are not, as yet, wholly oppressed by the great social evils which have fastened themselves upon the other peoples of the world. We are free to make or mar the future of the loveliest and most fruitful land under the British flag. Behind us the long line of a glorious ancestry in the home of our race; before us the future, great with possibilities. Shall we not do our best for our children and our children's children to raise high the standard of life in religion, in law, in social custom and in manhood ? There are evils which are with us today, and which' must be swept away if we would attain this end, and chief among this evil is the liquor traffic. I apeal for a great, united, enthusiastic movement to banish this traffic from the Dominion at the approaching poll. Such a movement will succeed. The vote upon national prohibition will be the first taken in any part of tho Empire. Owing to our geographical position prohibition when carried is assured of success under honest administration. We can lead.the world in this great reform ! Shall we do soP The answer rests with you. Strike out the top line.