LICENSING POLL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13781, 10 March 1919, Page 5

LICENSING POLL.

RETURNED SOLDIERS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Saturday. The Minister for Defence received on Thursday a telegram from the secretary of tho Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association, asking that steps be taken immediately to have an Order-in-Coun-eil, dated February iJSth, rescinded, and that the Oider-in-Council, dated December 19th, 1918, should still hold good. The telegram stated that over 300 soldiers in the Auckland district, depending on the Order-in-Council, had not enrolled, and, having been discharged since February, desired that the production of their discharge and pay-book should entitle them to vote at the referendum ,as originally decreed*

After communicating with the Attor-ney-General, Sir James Allen replied that section 12 of the Licensing Amendment Act provided only for the taking of votes of members of tho Expeditionary Forces. A discharged soldier, on his discharge, ceased to be a member of the Expeditionary Forces, and the regulations could not create a special rightnot conferred by the section. The regulations of December 19th related, as recent regulations relate, only to the votes of members of the Expeditionary Forces, and the reinstatement of the regulations of December 19th would not enable discharged soldiers to vote. The law was quite clear, and he could not act in contravention of the law.

The Minister regretted to hear that discharged soldiers had abstained from enrolling as electors under misapprehension of the position.