THE NO – LICENSE PARTY AND CANDIDATES FOR PARLIAMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1333, 5 December 1914, Page 3

THE NO - LICENSE PARTY AND CANDIDATES FOR PARLIAMENT.

(To the Editor)

Sir, —As there is considerable misconception about the attitude of No-License voters to Parliamentary candidates, I think it would be of great advantage if you would insert the following extract from aii article printed in the Vanguard, bearing date November 21st, that paper being the official organ of the N.Z. Alliance. Here follows the quotation which is a true and adequate statement of the attitude of the No License Party ■ “While the New Zealand Alliance iu annual convention assembled has declared emphatically that it will not be satisfied until the licensing issue is decided bj r a bare majority, it has also put itself on record as declining to make the acceptance of the bare majority as a test question for Parliamentary candidates. What it has required from those in agreement with its aims is that they will promise not to support any candidate who is not prepared to help to secure the abolition or a substantial reduction of the present three-fifths handicap. Such being the case it is clearly open to regard the candidate who pledges himself in favour of a reduction -of the handicap to 55-45 per cent., as well as the bare majority candidate, as coming within the range ot those candidates that the Alliance lias declared eligible for support. It is necessary that this should be made plain, so that 110 candidate should lie ruled out as ineligible because, while agreeing to the substantial reduction of the handicap to 54 45 per cent, he does not see his way. to support the bare majority. Personally, we could heartily wish that every candidate returned favotrred the bare majority, but the declaration of the Alliance shows that to require that as a condition of support from all candidates at the present stage is not deemed expedient.” To this I might add that as it is clear there is no chance of securing a bare majority measure on the licensing issue out of the new Parliament, basing a calculation on the utterances of candidates throughout the Dominion, but a very decided prospect of getting a 55 per cent, bill on the national issue, a candidate pledged to the latter amendment is of just as much use to the No-License party as a bare majority candidate. The position in this electorate therefore is that, of our two candidates, we have one declaring himself for the bare majority, the other pledging himself unreservedly for 55 per cent, on the Dominion issue, while seeking the repeal of the Local No-License issue. It is, therefore, clear that No-License people may consistently support either candidate, according to their political predefictions. —I am, etc,, A. C. Rander.sox, President, Otaki Electorate No-

license Deague,

The Manse, Devin, Dec. 4, 1914