MAINE'S VERDICT.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XV, Issue 4088, 14 November 1911, Page 3

MAINE'S VERDICT.

WHAT WILL NEXT HAPPEN? E XTR AORDIN ARY it EVEHS A L OF PUBLIC OPINION. THE TRUTH KNOWN AT LAST. (From Truth’s Auckland Rep.) On Wednesday and Thursday last the daily press throughout New Zealand published the following Press Association cablegram : . Boston, 7th November. The final figures for the elections in the State of Maine give a majority of 20 votes for the anti-Prohibi-tionists. 1 his result does not, however, settle the issue of Prohibition or otherwise ; it merely repeals a constitutional amendment to a legislative enactment, which provided for Prohibition, and which was passed before the constitutional amendment was pushed. Prohibition, therefore, still exists, 1 and can only be repealed by a. referendum vote. Consequently the State remains Pro hi biti onist. The Governor .Mr (Plaisted) decided on Monday last to accept the correction of votes by two towns, thus reversing the previous result. Further light was thrown on Maine matters, however, on Wednesday, when THE AUCKLAND PROVINCIAL COUNCIL received from New York the following cable: Governor has made announcement to-day that tin? repeal of Constitutional Prohibition was lost by 758 votes, but owing to altered public opinion expressed at polls, at next meeting of Legislature special session proposal will be submitted that constitution should be amended with a view to local option. Whether Prohibition was repealed by the majority of twenty, or its repeal was lost by 758 votes, it really has no local significance, as Mr Pat-ey, ] of the New Zealand Alliance, .-tat* ’ when tie* first news of the Prohibkio:, set-back in Maine arrived. However, surely the people of. New Zealand will note that Constitutional Prohibition, at the previous referendum iri Maine, was won by 46,972 votes, and that now, after AN EXPERIENCE WITH THE REAL THING, the Prohibition party in Maine hen the enormous number of 46,214 votes out of a total of 120,000, showing a tremendous moral victory for legitimate control, as opposed to Statewide no-license. It has really been No-license in Maine and not Prohibition as Prohibition i.- known in New Zealand. What the (ho pie of New Zealand have to face this time is even a more far-reaching issue, viz., absolute Prohibition with all its drastic provisions. Main© has by tremendous reversal of public opinion, based on experience, set a lesson for the people of New Zealand to study at this particular juncture, and obviously tlie most striking tiling about this expression of public opinion in Maine is the reversal of the 46,214 votes east in favour of Constitutional Prohibition at the previous referenrum, AND THE STARTLING FACT that with one exception all the cities in Maine have voted lor re pea I of Prohibition. Some cities by a three and four to one vote have given an emphatic expression of it-, opinions. Ex-President Roosevelt was certainly justified in his statement made in Outlook on September 24 "Whether Prohibition remains in the constitution iff Maine or not it can hardly remain in fact. The closeness of the vote explains the practical failure of Prohibit ion i n Maim-." It will be seen from tile cable that LEGISLATION WILL ENSUE giving the people the right of local option. Governor Plaisted being strongly in favour of tilie repeal of Prohibition, as also is more than twothirds of the Assembly in favour of true temporanoo. Sane regulation must follow.- Adit.