POSITION OF PROHIBITION

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 295, 11 December 1914, Page 6

POSITION OF PROHIBITION

ALLIANCE LEADERS ON YESTERDAY'S POLLING.

Wellington, December 11

Asked this morning whether' he hud anything to say on the results of yesterday's polling, the Rev. John Dawson, . secertary of the New Zealand Alliance, said that as the figures were incomplete he could not give a definite idea as to the nature of the result. He could, therefore, only make a genera, statement, but he, would summarise the position when he had full data. "1 am," he said, "very pleased'to find that there are only a very small percentage of three-fifths men elected t' the House, so that we have some hope of getting legislation, moro in the direction of democracy and fair play. There is only one more point to stress at the present. The thing that 1 think is most to be deplored is tin attitirde of the public press on a great national matter affecting the whole of the people. The system of advertising, to which they have become a party, has undoubtedly misled thous ands of people. The campaign of i: nuendo and misrepresentation indulg ed in has been one that must recoil on the heads of the guilty parties. In this connection I particularly refer to the improper and misleading use made of remarks of Sir Robert ot.uit, whr., as everyone shrulct know, has lieeii a consistent supporter through the whole of his. public career of majority ru'<* on the liquor question. In Parliament, in 1893, when the three-fifths handicap 'was imposed on the people, he fought it to the very last, and he has never swerved from that principle, and would, no doubt, make his position plain to-day if his official position would permit him. to speak on a subject of this character."

Rev. H. J. Comrie, "chairman of the executive of the'New Zealand Alliance, said :There ' appears to have been a falling off in the vote for nolicense and prohibition. I am not surprised at it under present circumstances, and I do not look upon it as an indication that the growth of the prohibition vote has been permanently checked. I recognise that all great reforms are achieved slowly and through many difficulties and occasional reverses. "Its a long way to Tipperary," but we are not downhearted.