WELLINGTON TOPICS

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14261, 12 January 1920, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

I the licensing poll. PROHIBITION MINORITY. (Special to Times.) WtKLLINGTON; .January 9. Botli the official parties, the Moderate League and the New eala ™* Alliance, profess to be satisfied, even by the result of the licensing poll, which to all intents and purposes Is determined by the figures published this morning. There still are some 000 soldiers’ votes afloat, but as Prohibition is 1185 short of the total required R> give it an actual majority, the disposition of those votes cannot materially alter the position. The probability is, of course, that the bulk of them will be cast for Continuance or State Purchase and Control, but even if they all were cast for Prohibition that issue still ■would be a long way short of the goal for which, its advocates have been striving. There yet may be a demand for the investigation of certain alleged irregularities at the polls, but the rank and file of the Prohibition Party are accepting this morning’s figures as conclusive. Both Sides Pleased. The Moderate League is comforting itself with the refiection that after a most strenuous campaign, and with an exceptionally large poll Prohibition has been defeated by 2968 votes. It gets at this total bv adding the Continuance vote of 240,998 and the State Purchase and Control vote of 32,148 together, and pitting the total against the Prohibition vote of 270,178. As its ™n policy was Stale Purchase with a preference for Continuance over Prohibition it is quite justified in regarding the figures from this point of view. But the New Zealand Alliance argues that the great majority of the votes cast for State Purchase "were votes detached from Prohibition, and that without this third issue on the ballot paper the Dominion would have been freed from the liquor traffic. And so both parties arc happy. Electoral Reform. The resolution of the Wanganui branch of the New Zealand Labour Party calling upon Mr Massey to reform the present electoral system by instituting proportional representation, and to immediately thereafter appeal to the country under the new system is not likely to be taken very seriously by the Prime Minister and his colleagues. But though Mr Massey has not committed himself to any definite statement on the subject, there is some ground for hoping that during the life of the new Parliament he will take steps to redeem the promises he made from the meetings so long ago as 1911. He did not on that occasion declare himself in favour of proportional representation, but he undertook that after abolishing the second ballot he would provide something better in its place to secure the representation of majorities. An Undesirable Immigrant. A good deal of stir has been occasioned here by the announcement that the Government has decided to deport a man named Moses Baritz, a recent arrival in the city, who has been lecturing under the auspices of the Marxian Society, and reproaching the New Zealand Labour Party with not being advanced enough. There is little local sympathy for Baritz, and practically none for the doctrines he would disseminate, but in many quarters there is a feeling that the legislation of last session, under which the Government is proceeding, is a little un-British. Even the Dominion regrets that it should b 6 necessary to “deport immigrants because of their political views, and prays for the time when “such persons will be frozen out automatically” by the fruits of a system of education which will teach our children to think for themselves and not crowd them with a mask of undigested information.