THE PROHIBITIONISTS AND THE BARE MAJORITY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2249, 22 July 1908, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONISTS AND THE BARE MAJORITY.

THE TRUE POSITION

STATEMENT BY PROMINENT MEMBERS.

[Si'ecial to “Times.”]

WELLINGTON, July 20,

l )r< ' 3 telegram received from Christchurch states that a Wellington correspondent has misrepresented the position of the prohibition party in saying (mat members of Parliamentliavo been requested to support the three-fifths majoirty. I have seen quite a number of members to-day, and one and all, without exception, state that there as not the slightest misrepresentation in regard to the position. In every case the members relerred to are men who supported the party at the last election. It is unnecessary to give the whole of the opinions, but those of two representative men from the North Island and 1 few from the South Island will suffice to show the true position. The first member interviewed said: “I am afraid our prohibitionist friends have very short memories. If'they cast their minds hack they will recollect that .in th e last Parliament an attempt was made to alter the Licensing Act in some very important particulars, and by a. Government measure it was proposed to extend the term of the local option poll to six years, and it was '.ateo proposed an no-license districts to give the police power to enter private houses in cases where they believed liquor was kept. When it came to the election people who believed dn no-Jionse were naturally, afraid tho latatck would be renewed after the election, and the pledge that was extracted from most of the candidates at the last election was that they would stand by the principles of the present law and especially the three-fifths majority and the three years’ term.” Another North Island member who supported prohibition at the last election was most decided oil the point. “Certainly,” he said, “I was asked to support the three-fifths majority, and I was never asked to support a hare majority, and would never do so. I ana convinced l the party is now making a great mistake in advocating that, and it will result in the loss of a great deal of sympathy and sup-' port.” Yet another North Island member, himself and prohibitionist and a. liberal subscriber to the fund, said he was pledged to the three-fifths majority, and now lie is naturally very wroth when ho is threatened with opposition from the prohibitionists because he will not support the bare majority. In this case there will he the unique position of the man’s own money being used against'him in connection with his own election by members of his owji party. The first North Island member spoken to said: “Certainly, the request was to support tile law as it stood. The prohibition party was afraid there might be a danger of their getting something worse.” Another South Islander corroborated this statement. He hauls from a. district in which the prohibition vote is a very large one. “It would,” he says, “result in chaos. The vote of one man or one girl might change in a district and next election a similar vote might again turn the scale the other way.” A third South Island M.R. said he was pledged to the throe-fifths majority. He ridiculed the movement in favor of a bare majority. These statements reflect the views of members generally, and the Bill to /provide for a bare majority is already las dead l as Julius Caesar.. Even.one .member who is prepared to vote for the Bill admitted to mo this afternoon that tile prohibition'party was making a. mistake in forcing such an issue. "There can be not the slightest doubt that the party will lose the sympathy and support if they press this issue. There were thousands of prohibitionist people at tile last dec-’ tion who voted prohibition because they thought “the trade” wanted a lesson, and these almost without exception favored tbe three-fifths majoritv. If the bare majority is stipu--1 a ted for the party avail lose these votes, especially as it is beginning to be realised that the trade has had its lesson, and lias profited by it. One member said lie did not think there would bo found in a house of eighty members more than teavlve or fifteen avho really favored the har c majority.