NEW SOUTH WALES LOCAL OPTION POLL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 10 November 1910, Page 21

NEW SOUTH WALES LOCAL OPTION POLL.

One of the most potent factors in the splendid result achieved in the recent local option poll was the brilliant fight put up by the hotelkeepers of New South Wales. They were in the first rank of the firing line, and they did their work nobly. Each individual hotelkeeper is a povrer in such a contest as this, especially in the country districts. A successful hotelkeeper must be possessed of a strong personality. His personal popularitj r brings him in touch with many movements —in fact, with every movement for the benefit of the district in which he lives. He comes in touch with the leaders of every class, and with individuals in every rank of society. When men like these, who are proverbially easy going, cnee start out to fight, their influence becomes effective in ever-widening concentric circles.

For three years past these men have been subjected to a campaign of the vilest abuse. Not only theii’ trade, but they themselves and even their wives and children, have been grossly insulted. They would have been less than human if they had not resented this. But in addition they were up against the lawless elements

which sought the destruction of their vested interests, and the deprivation of their livelihood. The wildest Socialist who has ever stood on a stump in the Domain, or on the Yarra bank, has never preached confiscation as the New South Wales Alliance has done. So that in addition to carrying on a defensive fight to save their homes and livelihood, the hotelkeepers have been vindicating the rights of every citizen in this State to be protected from expropriation and confiscation. —Fairplay.