THE LICENSING VOTE.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1682, 5 November 1925, Page 4

THE LICENSING VOTE.

BUT it was not in the Parliamentary voting alette that a genuine surprise —for the tremendous majority gained by Reform was a surprise—was forthcoming. A scrutiny of' the figures available on the Licensing issue shows that the advocates of Prohfo.tion had wem a greater number of votes than could have been expected by any but the most optimistic. The voting three years ago on the Licensing issue was as follows:—Continuance, 282,669; State Control, 35,727; Prohibition, 300,917. Thus the Prohibition vote was only 8803 short of that necessary to carry the day. This time, quoting the figures supplied at time 'of writing, the number of votes recorded for Continuance was 180,463 and for State 'Control 34,830. These

wo aggregate 215,293, while the Pro-

hibition vote was 204,801; the majority thus being 10,492. It is impossible to say authoritatively what will be the final result, but 'the total votes to hand so far only represent about two-thirds of the number 'actually recorded yesterday, and though it can hardly be expected that the margin required to secure Prohibition will be picked up in the remaining one-third the poll has been a heavy one, and the victory for Continuance must be only by a small margin. It would seem that the State Control issue is (not desired by electors, though the figures \ show that some converts have been gained in thtree years. In a total vote of over 600,000 in 1922 the State Control issue found just over 35,700 supporters, whereas of the 420,000 votes to hand at time of writing the State Control supporters (numbered 34,830.