The Wanganui Chronicle, AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1893.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11902, 9 December 1893, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle, AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1893.

The voting in tho recent general elections throughout the colony was very heavy. It is roughly estimated that a v out 75 or 80 per cent of the electors recorded their votes. Tho inexperienced may wonder why the number was uot Jarger, but those who have been through many a .contest know what a large number of absentees have always, for various reasons, t j be Accounted for. There are, for instance, the people fho are absent from the district on the cUy of election, people who are too ill, old, or infirm, to leave their homes, the people whose household or business duties make it inconvenient to attend th<> polling booth, the people who on the day of election a>-e working st too great a distance ■from the nearest booth, the peiple who do notcara for any of the candidates, the people who do no.t like to displease anybody, and the people who have scruple 3 about noting at all, AH these pooplo put together make up a large (af.v-1, and that their number in tho reconc Wangpnui election was under 900 is exceedingly satisfactory. It is to be remombered, of courso, that n number voted who would rol otherwise have done to bid it, not been for the knowledge that all nonvcters would Lo Etruck off tho roll, and consequently be put to the trouble of registering afresh after the election, A question th»|, is now trembling a gqod many minde throughout the colony is this — If ovei 75 pei- ■pant, of the electors polled in the general eleefcioß, will 50 per cent, exercise their vet, is c.kths licensing election in March next ? The reason of the Aoxief.y on this poiufc is that unless one-half of the total number of electors on the then roll racord their votes tha j.o!lid!* will be inoperative and of no avail. It may be asked why thoro should be any doubt on the point, seeing that 6uuh n, t irnicli larger number of per-oiis vi i jU h(,

the recent eleotions. Ihe answer is, that I the fever of agitation throughout the colony, from one end to the other, at a general election always acts as a powerful lover in making the electors attend to the day of voting, and that t'ao great masß of tho pooplo throughout tho electoral districts nro not likely to be nearly so exoitod nl n liconsinf: election. But what oporntoa moßt of all to swell the number nt elections is the fact that the two sides aro pitied ono ugaimt tho other, and that each is anxious and urgent to bring every elector to the poll. In the forthcoming licensing oloct ions it is argued tbiifc only ono aide will work to get tho pgople to the poll, and that the other side will use as eager efforts to keep them away. If this assumption betruo, will so per ce it. poll? Some poople argue that if the liquor party anil thoir friends refrain from voting the temperance reform advocates will novor he able to induce ono-half of the doctors to vote. But 113 against this it is possible that the temperance workers may fianvass the whole district and urge electors to vote for them or against tbem, as they think proper. Such a course migbt eocuro tho one. half, the temporance people meanwhile taking the chanco of getting tho threo-lifths majority, without which all or auy of the licenp ed bouses could not be closed. Under such ciicumstaucos the hotelkoepers would have very gravoly to considor whether it would be safe for thorn to remain idle during tho fight, and whether, if they should do so, they could count, upon all thoir followers iuul friends as well as the great mass of moderate pcoplo following thoir lead and kopping out of tho contest altogtlhor. Wo think that, as botwoon liquor sellers and prohibitionists, tho advisability or otherwise of couil.ing a contest in March is as puzzling to the one us to the other.