THE THIRD ISSUE.

Southland Times, Issue 19277, 23 June 1924, Page 10

THE THIRD ISSUE.

To the Editor. Sir,—Your excellent leader in Saturday’s issue in regard to the third issue on the Prohibition ballot paper and your advocacy of the transferable vote, opens up the large question as to why there should be a third issue on the ballot paper at all? It is certainly not in the interest of true democracy and if Mr Bartram is a true democrat he should vote for its withdrawal from the ballot paper. A further question arises and it is this: Why is the liquor party so anxious to retain a third issue? The answer to this question is, that it is there to capture a large number of votes that would otherwise be cast for Prohibition. It is a sort of half way house for those who recognise the evils of the liquor traffic and yet are not prepared to vote it out. The information coming from Quebec in regard to state control in Montreal as recorded in the last issue of the “Vanguard” should be sufficient to convince any impartial person that state control or corporate control are not remedies for controlling the drink traffic. No, the real reason why the liquor trade is so anxious to retain state control on the ballot paper, or to place what they consider a mote popular issue there, is not because they think that better issue would be carried, but because any issue if voted for becomes a “valid vote” and as such has to be cancelled by a vote from a Prohibitionist. At the last poll .there were 619,187 votes cast for all issues; of these, Prohibition obtained 300,791. The popular idea appears to be that the state control votes are added to the continuance votes. There is nothing whatever in the “Licensing Amendment Act 1918” to justify such a contention. In accordance with this Act any issue which obtains “more than one-half of all the valid votes recorded at the poll” is carried. Prohibition was therefore lost by 8802 votes. Continuance was not carried by a vote of the people and matters remained exactly as they were before the poll. The Gazette notice did not declare continuance carried, but the figures were published “for public information.” This happened in 1922 and is exactly what the liquor party want to happen in 1925. Any third issue which will cpmmand a sufficient number of “valid votes” to influence the poll will answer their purpose, be it state control, corporate control or any other issue such as light wines, etc. Every effort should be made to convince our Members of Parliament that their action in regard to the important matter of placing a clean-cut issue before the people is of vital importance at the present stage of the Prohibition movement. I am, etc., ARGUS. June 21, 1924.