THE FATAL 30TH.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 1008, 1 July 1909, Page 20

THE FATAL 30TH.

REDUCTION VOTE IN OPERATION. OVER 100 HOTELS CLOSED. At 10 o’clock last evening the bars of no fewer than 107 hotels in the Dominion of New Zealand were closed for the last time, as the outcome of the local option poll taken in November last. Of the number 66 licenses vanish under the direct operation of the “ No-License” vote, 13 others disappear, most unfairly as we have all along contended owing to the readjustment of the Electoral boundaries; and 28 are wiped out under the Reduction vote by the several Licensing Committees. The losses appear to be equally divided between the two islands, although on the prohibition basis the North Island most, as 54 houses are closed in the North Island against 53 in the South Island. The “ NoLicense” vote proved more effectual in this respect in the North Island than in the South, as the ratio of closed houses under the three fifths vote is 100 per cent greater in the North than in the South. On the other hand reduction has claimed the heaviest toll in the South, 18 licenses disappearing there under the vote against 10 in the North. Six hotels in the late Geraldine electorate have “ gbhe dry ” owing to being thrown into the no-license district of Ashburton, a similar number have been disposed of by portions of the old Waikouaiti and Waitaki districts being added to Oamaru, and one license formerly in Awarua has also been lost through a hotel being included in Mataura by the readjustment of districts. The largest loss of licenses in an electorate is in Bruce (Otago), where the carrying of no-license has caused 22 hotels to cease to exist as licensed houses. Masterton, which also carried no-license, contains 15 hotels, and Oh nemuri, the third on the list, has 14 licensed houses within its boundaries. “ No-license ” is also responsible for closing the four hotels in Eden, seven in Wellington Suburbs, and four in Wellington South. The following are the complete reduction figures:—Auckland City, 5; Parnell, 2; Manukau, 3; Dunedin City, 10; Dunedin South, 2; Chalmers, 3; Ta’eri, 2. In the case of Auckland the number closed is two above the 5 per cent, minimum, in Parnell it was both maximum and minimum, viz., 25 per cent, of the houses, are being closed.