LICENSING PETITIONS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14710, 16 September 1918, Page 6

LICENSING PETITIONS.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir. —lt has come to my knowledge that a canvasser endeavoring to procure signatures to the liquor petition has been telling people that whatever their views they ought to sign that petition, and that I and a number of other prohibitionists have done so. It is hardly necessary to cay thai so far as I am concerned this is entirely incorrect. For the guidance of those who are m doubt, the _ trade's petition has three issues: National continuance, national prohibition and national ownership. Beware of that petition because its aim is not national efficiency, but to retain things as they are. As Mr Bayley pointed out at hb meetings, if a poll were taken with those three issues and out of 100 votes, 50 were polled for national prohibition, 49 for national ownership, and one for national cOntinuancei, the issue that won would be the last although it only secured one vote, the reason being that as no- issue had secured' a bare majority over the other two, things would have to remain as they are. If anyone has been misled into signing such a petition, the only thing for them to do is to ai once neutralise their mistake by signing the alliance petition which provides for a decision upon the one issue of national prohibition. —l am, etc., F. Jv". CHATTERTON.