THE ROLL STUFFING STORY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 22 November 1922, Page 6

THE ROLL STUFFING STORY

MORE DECEPTION OFFICJAL EXPLANATION ‘‘A disgraceful attempt to mislead flic public ’ is the wav in which many business men have described a recent Prohibition advertisement on rollf. tufting. The advei'tisemenl refciTed to draws attention to the fact that there, were 683,420 names on the mil last election, ■whilst there were at that time only 675.415 persons over 21 years of age in New Zealand. The inference drawn ’s that Ihe balance of 8005 names were, improperly placed upon Ihe red Ik by interested parlies. The official explanation of this dls crepanev is to he found in the New Zealand Year Booh tor 1920, piige 102. Below (lie figures, which are Ihe same as above, appears the, ■following footnote “Tins excess of roll number over total population may be explained thus: The population ■ quoted is the do facto population actually in the country: the roll 'in umber includes many soldiers still abroad. Further, many thousands of deceased soldiers and others had not been removed from the lolls owing to lack of proof of death.” Now. it is obvious that, whoever issued this ’advertisement .must have invosTigaled this mailer pretty thoroughly—and it would be impossible to do so*without their becoming cognisant of the perfectly satisfactory explanation issued in the Government publication. Yet that -explanation is -suppressed. Why? Simply for the purpose of concocting a rm'po'ternus story of rollstuffing and backing it up with the offer of a large reward, to anialem spies. Of course this is just anolhe: example of the New Zealand Alliance :■ running tactics of nii.«re-presenl,-i.(ion. The- mistake Ihe Alliance makes, however, i\ Iha I. it evidcnLv lakes New Zealamlers lor a million of simple Trins. But- the public are "gullin'! wise’ 1 ' to these, peoples ingenuity m manipulating the truth so as to mislead.' And the public will give its verdict af the polling bo(4!i—a lug. definite V-olc for Continuance by strikin' out the Two Bottom lines. 1 "