LOCAL OPTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8327, 19 December 1905, Page 3

LOCAL OPTION.

Result of the Recent Poll.

The No=License View.

" The returns are still incomplete," said the Rev. F. W. Isitt to a Post interviewer, when asked for his opinion on the recent local option poll, and he added that the returns were very carelessly recorded. As an illustration he quoted the case of Waikouaiti—one of many. The official figures telegraphed were—Continuance 2500, reduction 2793, no-license 3170. On Thurs- • day, Rev. Mr Clark wrote to him saying: " The count was finished yesterday. Result —Continuance 1532, reduction 1992, nolicense 2318 ; informal, 81; total valid votes, 3567. No-license missed by two votes and one-fifth," and, though he docs not say so, reduction is evidently carried, comMr Isitt. Another and very serious instance of carelessness referred to by Mr Isitt was that very many Returning Officers included invalid votes in the total, and there had been no record during all these years that could be relied upon, because there had been no uniformity in this matter, which had been left to the sweet will of each Returning Office!-. " Obviously," he remarked, " we are wronged by that method, because if invalid votes are included the difficulty of obtaining a threefifths majority is greatly increased." These, he went on to say, were comparatively small matters. The thing that would inspire No-License advocates throughout the Colony would be to know that though the Colonial returns are still incomplete the figures at present show that the

License vote totalled ... 181,738 No-License vote totalled 197,438

" As 200,000 was the most sanguine expectation we ever indulged in, we are not very far from our goal, especially seeing there are some figures still to come in," commented Mr Isitt.

Continuing, he said there were a few facts to which he thought it would be interesting to draw at-tentiop. '' We are sorry," he said, "to learn that there has been a good deal of irregularity ; that people have voted who were not of age, that people were enrolled before they had been sufficiently long in the country ; that this was done in some of the electorates where the fight was most critical, and it will be for the Executive of the Alliance to consider on Monday whether they shall not urge that under any

circumstance?, irrespective of sex or position, those who have committed breaches of the law shall be prosecuted.

Invercargill, Mr Isitt said, reported that scores of people were enrolled on the supplementary roll, chiefly Jlaxmill and sawmill hands, who really resided either in Mataura, Wallace or Awarua, and the leaders of the No-License movement there believed that on a fair vote they would have had a clear surplus of three hundred over the necessary three-fifths. Other impressive facts were in regard to the wins at Oaniaru and Invercargill. Both of them were self-contained districts, each with large agiicnltural surroundings, and to have won there was an object-lesson worth a dozen of such wins as Newtown would have been. Also Clutha had by an increasing majority re-allirmed its determination to keep liquor out of the district.