LOCAL OPTION IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13960, 20 July 1907, Page 5

LOCAL OPTION IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Br G. B. Xicholls. It will interest Dunedin readers to compare our New Zealand act with that which will shortly be voted on in New South Wales and note the differences,, As with New Zealand there arc the three issues to vote on—viz., Continuance, Reduction, and No-license—a bare majoriiy to carry Reduction and a three-fifths vote being required to carry No-liccnse and 30 per cent, of the voters must go to the poll. There is a great, difference, however, in flic manner of voting and in the mode of counting the votes. In New South Wales - each person can voic only for one issue, but if Nolicense is not carried the votes for that issue are added on to the Reduction, votes. Thus if 6000 people go to tiitt poll and 2500 vote for No-license, only 501 voting for Reduction, the latter issue is declared carried. The New South Wales Alliance are advising all voters to put a cross in the bottom square and tlms vote for No-license with the certainty of their vote counting for Reduction if the major issue is not carried. THE VOTING IS BY A CROSS put in a square opposite the line you wish to vole for. This is also the case in the voting for candidates. If No-licenee is achicvod tlio vote takes effect in a very gradual way. Such hotels as have a had record may be closed in a year, or two years, as the case may be; but the bulk of the licenses expire at the -end of three years, unless the second vote taken before thoy close shows a three-fifths majority in favour of restoration of licenses. If this be the ease they will not close at all. If Reduction is carried the decision as to how many licenses shall be withheld rests with a special court, consisting 'of a judge and two magistrates, who arc already chairmen of licensing benches.' There is a wide margin of variation possible in the proportion of licenses withheld under Reduction. In the Hume electorate, for instance, in which I am now working, Reduction must of necessity abolish four licenses, but may, if the bench chooscs,, abolish 11, and perhaps 12.

It 6cems strange, coming from New Zealand, to find that' REDUCTION IS THE POPULAR ISSUE

here in Albury, and, I think, all over the State. Tho idea of trying for complete No-license seems to many most excellent people here revolutionary and quixotic. However, in most place they are going to try for No-license, a 6 arc we in the Hume electorate. It seems a hopeless sort of t«6k in this place compared to the conditions we find in Otago. This city of Albury, with between 6000 and 7000 population, has 55 drinking-places, several of them being Australian wine licenses. As. however, tho wine sold is very strong, being highly forii-. Red with spirit, these depots are considered by temperance workers as at least, as objectionable as the ordinary bars. As yet in most places very little public interest- is displayed in No-license matters compared to that shown in New Zealand at a date so close to the poll. The centre of conflict, however, is clearly temporarily .shifted to this sidfc, whore the vested interests are for the first time in danger. NEW ZEALANDERS ARE THICK

in the fight. Miss Anderson Hughes, of Auckland, has boon lecturing in New South j AValt" for some months on the No-license side, Mr Ward, the secretary of the Auckland Licensed Victuallers' Association, delivered an address at Oulcavin, some 20 miles from here, last Monday evening in defence of the trade. I have challenged him to substantiate his statements on the public platform, and 6peak here myself next Tuesday, July 9. It seems strange, also, to a New Zealander to find that here, where we are on tho borders of Victoria, there are licensed houses at Wodonga, three miles away, which are not subjcct to the perils now besetting the Albury houses, as they, being,in Victoria, are,'for 10 years at anyratc, free from local option polls. The methods of conducting the elections hero aro in many ways an IMPROVEMENT ON NEW ZEALAND METHODS. For instance, the police compile the roll, and all declarations of thoso desiring or entitled to enrol must be made before a .member of tho police force. So far as I can- sea in the short time I' have been here tho local force havo. done their work admirably. Then, in the compilation of tho roll, each polling booth has its own-voters allotted to it. Thus, at Jingellic there aro 46 voters allotted to the booth, and thoy .can only vote at that'booth; Except by making a declaration beforo the returning officer. Those declarations only hold good for booths within the electorate for which the person is enrolled. At Germanton (which by the way is not a' Gorman settlement) there are 670 voters, at Tumbarumba 702, at Albury 3231, and so oil. lliose precautions will all bo excellent in helping to prevent impersonation, 'SYDNEY POLICE DISTRICT. The metropolitan area presents a problem sufficient to strike dismay to the heart of the temperance reformer. There, in close juxtaposition, arc no fewer than 1174licenses of various sorik all contained within tho area of tho metropolitan jiolice district. Seven hundred and forty-four of theso are publicans' and 325 wine licenses. This aggregation of vested interest seems to the onlooker to be well nigh immovable and invincible as far as the popular vote is concerned. It seems almost beyond reasonable expectation that three-fifths of the great mass of hurrying and struggling human beings to be seen in Sydney can be touched by the No-lieense agitation. Tho largest meetings makes but a tinv ripple upon tho fierce current of city life. Yet thoir apparent safety may

I'ROVE THEIR UNDOING. Tho number of bars is so huge that everyone, agrees that it ought to' bo reduced, but hcire from t.he No-license point of view a 'weakness in the act becomes manifest. If a single electorate has 160 lieensc6, as is the case in one instance, only four must of noccssitv be forfeited if Seduction is carried. True, the judge and two magistrates MAY in this case close 40, but (.hey arc only compelled to take away four. It has been proven many times in New Zealand that it is very awkward for a judicial body to exoeed the limits to which it is compelled to go by law or by the vote of tile people. FROSTY WEATHER. Hero in Albury (which is ono of the places that have competed for selection as tli-! Federal capital) _ readers in Dunedin will 4 be rather surprised to learn that wo had two very severe frosts' last week. Taps that, vero dripping had long ioicies hanging from them in the morning, and wafer-pipes were bursting in all directions. As the temperature here runs up to 105 and even 109 degrees Fahr. in the shade in summer, the variation shown is somewhat remarkable. PROSPECTS OF THE POLL.

I cannot think that the prospects 'of carrying any areas for No-lioensc in New South Wales.are vory bright. Owing to the popularity of tho Reduction issue and also owing to the fact that the Reduction votes all add to the total to be attacked by the No-license vote, it looks fairly certain that in many oases, if not in all, tho votes oast for Reduction will defeat tho No-l.ieense issue. However, the adding of the No-lioense votes on to the, Reduction total, if the major issue is not carried, makes it fairlv pertain that Reduction will bo achicvo.l in a. good many places. Tho fact that the hotels to bo "reduced" are dccided on by a judicial board, instead of by an eleoted committee as with us, has one great advantage, in that it will reduce friction to a minimum, but- it also lias the disadvantage that the public have no means of compelling the Licensing Bench to dose the full 25 per cent, they aro allowed to by the act. even if there is an overwhelming majority in the locality who desire this full reduction. Tho above explanation of the conditions will enable anyone- who is following this matter with inlerest. to understand the position, and sonic of the difficulties with whioh the No-license effort is faced in New South Walos. THE NO-LICENSE PARTY has not yet found itself in this State. Very many, especially women, have not the least idea of tho drastic nature of the powers that- have boen put into their hands, The Now South Wales Alliance have a number of organisers in the field, but each has .such a vast area to bring out of chaos into order, and each place is in itself so apathetic and difficult to move that it is plain that there is a long and difficult load to be traversed. In Albitry city, from which I write, one-third of the voters aro Roman Catholics, and in the whole electorate about one-fourth. As No-lioense is looked upon as a purely Protestant agitation, and it is notoriously almost impossible for an outsider to influence those qf the Roman Catholic persuasion, the result of ths local option contest in this place will be largely govorncd by tie official attitude its Rsmsa &fholip Cimrch chases da

take upon the question. The difficultly of tli j task of the Alliance is also much inoieased by the ureal number of winegiowors in (he State. Albury, X.S. W., July 2.