Interview with Mr F. W. Isitt

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 12622, 19 November 1908, Page 6

Interview with Mr F. W. Isitt

Probably 100 Liquor' Bars Closed

(Dominion.) As might be expected the No-License party are very jubilant over the Tesult of the local option polls. With No-Li-cense carried in several new districts, and the same issue reaffirmed by largely increased votes in those where previous polls had carried it, they feel well pleased with the present position, -of - their movement, and very hopeful as to its future. The Rev. F. W. Isitt, general secretary of the New Zealand Alliance, was interviewed at a late hour last night, when it was that ''No->liieeMse had been carried in several new electorates in Eden, Wellington South, Wellington Suburbs, Hutt, Wairarapa, probably Masterton, and Ohinemuri. This meant, he said, the closing of the bars in nearly a hundred hotels, the figures for those near at hand being as follow — Wellington Suburbs^ "-five hotels; Wairarapa, seventeen; Masfcerton, sixteen; Hutt, fifteen; Wellington South, four, Reduction in Dunedin made it possible to close nine. It will be remembered that in 1902 Dunedin carried reduction, and at that time thirteen hotels were ' deprived of their licenses. Since the last election the boundaries of Ashburton and Oamaru have been altered. Part of tbe Geraldine electorate was thrown into Ashburton, and part of the Waikouaiti electorate into Oamaru. Each of these new portions contained hotels, and, as according to the Act they now pass under the. No-License vote, eleven hotels in the old Geraldine and Waikouaiti electorates lost their licenses. Though there were few figures available to show how the No-License vote had increased in other electorates in the colony, it was evident that it had largely increased, and it was especially interesting to note that these parts of adjacent electorates which had been thrown into Ashburton and Oamaru had not altered the position in either of them though the voters had had an excellent opportunity of observing the result of the No-License experiment. Speaking of the cause of the growth in NoLicense sentiment, he said that the Alliance had been splendidly helped in its propaganda by workers in the* Dominion and others who had come to their aid from outside, but he attributed the increased vote as much as anything to the conduct of the licensed traffic, and the tactics adopted by the advocates of the traffic in spreading statements that were glaringly false. The best work duringthis election had been done by quite young men and women who had put an enormous amount of enthusiasm into it, and "this was in itself a promise of future strength for the movement. It pleased the NoLicense party to know that their success meant success to their comrades in other countries. Their victory was the greatest help to the No-License in Australian States, and as Mr*' Arthur Henderson had said in his message to the workers of New Zealand, it would hearten the workers at Home. Mr Isitt commented on the fact that if tfee' vote for Wellington provincial electorates were correct it would mean a stretch of nearly one bundred miles under No-License.