THE NELSON LICENSING COMMITTEE ELECTIONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 10 March 1909, Page 2

THE NELSON LICENSING COMMITTEE ELECTIONS.

VICTORY FOR THE EARLY-CLOSING PARTY. i

The- triennial poll fur the election of a Licensing Conunittee was taken yesterday. Fine weather prevailed throughout the district, and though the voting was slow in the forenoon, there was a good turn-out of electors in the afternoon. The polling booths were open till 7 p.m., and the results were all in at midiijfht. The returns from the Oddfellows' Hall .'principal booth) were available :ibout 11 o'clock, but those from the Provincial Hall were not available till an hour later, and were the last to come in. The issue of tli-J election ,ivas 10 r.'ilo.li ve'stH U o'clock ciosiiii; of the i.ot«-ls. A Temperance ticket of four v.'iii> nm in favour of 10 o'clock, the can, l iht- ■> !>tiii<> Messrs K. McLaren. T. Path, 1!. '... Th-ira*, ar.d 1!. Wal-,-on. A .Moili-ratfr tic-ki-t -A five nndidates — Mussrs P. Best, A. A. Grace, R. Hunter, J. C. Mercer, and K. K. .Trask — was regarded as bein^ favourable to the 11 o'clock extension, though as a matter of fact no public pronouncement was made on the point by the candidates. In addition to the two tickets, there were three candidates out "on their own," viz., Messrs H. Atmore, W. Coleman, and J. E. Barflett, all of whom were in favour of 10 o'clock closing. Thus out of 12 candidates in the field sewn had declared for 10 o'clock. The voting showed an unmistakeable feeling in both town and country m favour of 10 o'clock closing. The votes cast in favour of

Hie seven candidate* .■■. ;.p<_:iin.<j 10 o'clock totalled 6182, while the other tioo polled 3939 votes Messrs Atmorn, Pettit, Watson, "UuI.aren, and Bc-t were icturned in the order named, the first four being pledged to 10 o'clock and the last-named beiiif on the Moderate ticket. 'Phe old members of the Committee seeking re-election were Messrs Atmorc. Best, Coieman anil Trask. The former two have been re-elected, ami the latter two defeated. No-license workers interested themselves in the Temperance ticket candidates, nlid were responsible for rounding up :i!id convoying to (lie booths a large number of supporters. The •'trade" also worked actively. The following table gives the detailed result/; at the various booths. About 7000 persons were qualified to vote. Untii the official returns are received from all the booths the exr.ct number of people who recorded their votes cannot be given. In the city. : Clifton Terrace, Hillside, and Happy '■ Valley booths 1939 votes were cast. i Probably not more than 600 or 700 5 votes were recorded at the remaining . booths, which would give a total of ■ 2500 or 2600 out of the 7COO. This ) does not indicate a very great interest - in the election. Yesterday there were i no polling booths in the Sounds, nor at 1 other places where they were provided i at the general election, and this would < account to some extent for the comparaf lively small number voting.

After the final returns were in seveml of the candidates made speeches. Mr Atmoro returned his sincere thanks for the honourable position he !i:id been placed in. As usual, when he was contesting for a scat on a local body he had strong political influence against him ; but in spite of that he had been returned at the head of the poll. This indicated that the public desired the hotels to b> closed at 10 o'clock. He had struck the first blow at the last annual meeting of tho Licensing Committee, when he had opposed the 11 o'clock extension. The volins that day had gone against those who had failed to make their position clear in regard to the hour of closing. Mr Atmoro repeated his^expression of thanks. Mr Ppttit followed He said that his feelings in regard to Temperance were well known. On a fiii-unr occasion he had been almost at the botloni of the !>o!l. and the if suit th.it day shov\ ed what ;i «reat change had com-? over public feeling. Mr WaUin .ilsj referred U> previous defeats, and attributed his success to perseverance. He would endeavour to see the Licensing Act fairly administered. Ten o'clock closing would be introduced, and there would be other necessary reforms. * Mr McLaren said that he was a cnmparati"ely ncent arrival, and he attributed bis success to his> identification with the. Temperance pu'y. Mr Traslc was tl"" '.si speaker. He expressed reeret it tli.- rvsult of tlio polline, and said that flu; election had been biassed — the most I sssed he had over known. No one could find fault with what the old Committee had done. If the new :*emmitfe'! could do more in iho public interests than the old <me be wished i» "Good luck " H« wi- opposed v 10 o'clock closing, and would nev->r come out in support of ii. On the last occasion of a contest, in 1903, th ehighest of tho candidates in favour of 10 o'clock was 482 votes below the lowest of oh? candidates supP'.rt'ns 11 o'clock. The polling in IGO3 was as follows : — Best 1331 Atmore 1295 Coleman 1262 W. Akersten 1259 Bauke 1254 Frankly n 772 PeUit 770 Watson 703 Prior to 190.3 tho la.-l oii!c.--( was in ,1894. »hen the voting (was a: follow:- — MODERATES. f-harlc-- Bird 14*4 John Scott 14J 1 W. Northam 1379 : R. MrKiie 1362 S. Kirkpatiick 1327 W. Akersten 1325 Geo. Sinclair 1267 Philip Best 1149 j PROHIBITIONISTS. , fko. Talbot 995 | W. Gibbs 931 I Gco. Bond 918 | 1.. Watson 913 | T. H. Stringer 886 j J. Crump 865 T. Bray 860 ] T. PeUit 829 THE AUCKLAND TOLL. VICTOKY FOR THE "MODERATES." MAXIMUM REDUCTION KEJECTED. (l'roin Our Special Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, Wednesday. The result of the Auckland licens- ■ ing election is a complete and signal victory for the Citizens' League, or the "Moderate" party, the members | of whose ticket -wero returned at the head of he poll with substantial ma- . jbritiles. The present Committee, who had pledged themselves to a maximum reduction policy, were all rejected. I At the local option poll "reduc- ! tion" was carried, and it was confidently anticipated by the Temperance party that this success -would bo emphasised by the return of the "full reduction" ticket at to-day 'a election. But the results of the poll have upset all their calculations. It is claimed by the "Moderate" i party that the result of the election J may "be taken as a protest against the | attitude of the present, committee in ' pledging themselves to a course of t action before having 'heard the argufnent of evidence for and against "full reduction," which would in- I volve the closing of fourteen hotels j in the city. , The members of the "ticket" returned have made no pledges; but they have intimated that they will act judiciously by bearing evidence, iand then deciding on their course of action. The election was keenly contested, upwards of 13,000 voters going to the poll. j [United Press Association.] j AUCKLAND, Wednesday. In the Manukau poll two tickets , were put forward :— Whether two or ' ; tnhreo hotels should bo closed. With | 17 small returns to come, and very ' j close voting, Messrs Scott and West- i nC y ("Temperance") head the list. ' j The «thcr "Temperance" candidates . ( Were fi^tn, ECveUtll, »»d uiatU in or- ' der. , i t

[aft < « k § „ 52 » llE'lilll iiliJ Oddfellows' Hall ... 347 113 295 156 262 291 253 298 344 278 313 293 60 Provincial Hall ... 365 119 246 129 174 205 182 271 291 226 223 253 18 Wood Sunday School ... 70 31 43 26 35 41 26 71 73 66 44 70 10 Hampdcn Street School ... 73 15 36 48 45 35 29 80 51 84 39 93 8 Tho Port ... ... 73 11 71 45 64 75 02 62 70 fS 83 66 15 Clifton Terrace ... ... II 3 6 11 2 4 4- 24 17 13 2 22 2 Hillside 7 4 12 7 7 9 14 14 9 9 1(1 13 2 Happy Valley ... ... 7 9 7 7 1 6 2 8 10 8 2 10 ... Wangamoa ... ... 14 8 13 5 4 4 4 6 7 3 7 lo Carluke 17 11 12 4 1 7 4 4 6 5 6 C Flat Creek 3 14 4 2 3 3 2 3 4 3 3..'. Canvastown 4 G 5 3 1 2 0 3 3 3 4 3... Stoke 54 52 65 41 26 49 25 20 25 13 45 27 ... Richmond 05 84 74 100 35 39 29 55 70 42 51 58 Ranzaa... 23 32 20 30 3 9 2 16 23 17- 10 18 Appleby 20 31 26 23 8 12 12 3 33 3 9 10 Hopo 13 11 10 10 4 9 2 8 7 7 6 8.. Total ... 1172 541 945 G55 671 800 663 94 > 1062 839 870 0^3115