Effect of Striking Out the Top Line Only.

The effect of striking out only the top line on the voting paper will be as follows:—You will be counted to have voted for the two thing in the two lines which you have left untouched, so that if there are not enough votes for the better thing of the two (" that no licenses be granted in the district") there may still be a chance that there will be votes enough for the other thing ("that the number of licenses in the district be reduced"), either of which will be better than the continuance of the existing number of licenses in the district.

If three-fifths of those who poll vote that no licenses be granted in the district, that will be carried and come into force, even though there may be a larger number of votes for the continuance or the reduction of the licenses existing in the district. But if less than three-fifths of the votes are for no license in the district, then, if there is a bare majority of votes for a reduction of the number of licenses in the district that will be carried.

If there is only one candidate for parliament, and, therefore, no parliamentary contest, there will still be a poll taken about licenses, but it will go for nothing unless half on the roll vote.

If it be carried that no licenses be granted in the district, that will take effect on the first day of July, 1897, when the existing licenses expire, thus giving the local [unclear: for] sellers over six months' notice to [unclear: casesing]. If it is only a reduction of licenses the district which is carried, them number of the several kinds of licenses have to be reduced by any number [unclear: for] twentieth to a quarter of them, at the [unclear: tre] cretion of a licensing committee of persons to be elected in the following [unclear: date] of March, with the Stipendary [unclear: Mage] as chairman. So that the amount of deduction will depend on the sort of [unclear: co]mittee which you then elect. But in case if the licenses in the district [unclear: of] exceed ten the committee will be [unclear: being] reduce them by at least one; if they [unclear: are] exceed thirty, by at least two; and [unclear: it] do exceed thirty, by at least three.

If it is carried that no licenses be [unclear: gree] in the district, then no licenses [unclear: of] description will be lawful there in [unclear: eryrf] licensing committee is to be [unclear: of] Club charters will still be lawful [unclear: for] these are granted by the Colonial [unclear: see] If in any district where it is [unclear: carring] licenses are to be granted the people [unclear: for] the following March to elect a to [unclear: com] then a Stipendary Magistrate will [unclear: tru]stead of a committee. Where it is[unclear: acc] that no licensee he granted in the [unclear: new] entirely new and greatly improved visions for enforcing the law will [unclear: end] operation which will very quickly[unclear: of] braving of the law such as ex-[unclear: licences] others have been attempting in the [unclear: last] district; so that what has been [unclear: know] page 27 in the past is no indication at all of how things will be in the future under a law which will necessarily make the enforcement of Prohibition much more effective.

It is further enacted as follows :—"The provisions of section 33 shall not apply to clubs."

"Be truly wise not to live but to be healthy is life." Try a bottle of Nurse Woodward'S Health Syrup, and you will understand the full meaning of this [unclear: you] quotation. Wholesale from Sharland & Co., Ltd.

No one can Know how you Vote.

When it is locally supposed to be known how an individual has voted, it is either because the individual has himself told it, or it is pure guesswork, and often quite contrary to fact. Designing persons may try to frighten dependent electors from recording their votes, or seek to compel them to vote in a certain way, by asserting that it will be found out how they have voted; but all this is sheer falsehood and bounce.

On the electoral roll every registered elector has his name and a number to it. When the elector enters the polling booth he finds there the returning officer and his poll-clerk and the scrutineers appointed by the several contending candidates to watch proceedings on their behalf. The clerk asks him his name, finds it on the roll, marks it that he may know if more than one person comes to vote in that elector's name, takes a voting paper, and writes the number, which is opposite the elector's name on the roll, in one corner upon the back of the voting paper, and folds and gums down the corner that the number may no more be seen; he then loosely folds up the voting paper, stamps it on the outside, and hands it to the elector. The elector then goes alone to the private recess, crosses out the names of the candidates he wishes not to be elected, or the proposal he wishes not to be carried, folds up the paper again, shows the outside of it to the clerk that he may see the stamp and know that it is the same paper, and then deposits it in the slit in the top of the ballot-box, which is kept locked until the voting is over.

If another person comes and claims to be the real elector of that name, and receives a voting paper, the fact is noted by the poll-clerk by his having two marks to that name upon his roll. If in the same electorate there are several polling booths, and an elector votes more than once by voting at more than one of them, this is found out by it being seen at the close of the voting that the same name has been marked on the roll at more than one polling place.

When the polling is over the box is unlocked by the returning officer in the presence of the poll-clerk and the candidates' scrutineers. The returning officer then takes out and unfolds the voting papers one by one and reads out the votes, and lays the papers one on another face upwards to the last. The votes as they are read out are taken down by the poll-clerk, but neither he nor anyone else sees the gurnmed-down numbers at the back to tell whose votes they are, nor can have any idea whose votes are being read.

If the marked rolls reveal that more persons than one have voted as the same even the user or users of these papers voted. Spoiled voting papers are also [unclear: laid] aside by themselves as lnformal elector, the voting papers are turned over, backs upward, and the corners cut open without the opposite side being seen, till the number required is come to and if more than one voting paper bears that same number these papers are disallowed and placed by themselves with their faces still downward, so that It is not known how even the user or users of these papers voted. Spoiled voting papers are also laid aside by themselves as informal.

The genuine, the fraudulent, and the spoiled voting papers are now placed by the returning officer, each lot in a separate brown paper wrapper supplied by the Government, tied up with rod tape, and sealed, still in the presence of the clerk and the opposing candidates' scrutineers. He then writes across each parcel what it contains, and signs his name. The same is done with the poll-clerk's marked roll. The candidates' scrutineers may also, if they like, write across, sign, and seal each parcel. All this is done with the utmost despatch while the public are awaiting the result of the poll.

The returing officer then sends these sealed parcels to the clerk of writs at Wellington, who keeps them in their sealed condition for six months, and then, still unopened, destroys them by fire. In the case of the licensing polls, the parcels are at once sent to the clerk of the nearest Resident Magistrates' Court, in a similar way, also for destruction after six months' custody. If during the six months they are required for a judicial inquiry, only the papers wanted are dealt with, and that in a judicial court under conditions of strictest secrecy. No honest voter, therefore, need ever fear that if he votes at the election or the licensing poll anybody but himself will ever know how he has voted unless he himself chooses to tell it. Heavy penalties are provided for any attempt to violate any of the foregoing provisions.

You may vote at any polling booth in your own electorate, and, as the time draws near, may need to inquire where the most convenient one for you is located.

Theee Young Men of Lee.

There were three young men of Lee,
They were drunk as drunk could be,
For they had bumpers three times three,
And they were jolly as jolly could be,
These three young men of Lee.
All three young bums would proudly say,
"We take our liquor straight each day.
The prohibition cranks shan't touch
Our liberty we prize so much;
What care we for our daddies' fears?
What care we for our mothers' tears?
Older men drink, and why not we?
We'll have all we want," said the bums of Lee.

There are two old sots at Lee,
They are as poor as poor can be,
And one is lame and one cannot see:
They are out at elbow and out at knee,
These two old sots at Lee.
The one that is lame had a heavy fall
On the alehouse floor in a drunken brawl
The blind one lost his sight, they say,
By staggering near a blast one day;
The third was killed in a crowded street,
By a loaded waggon he chanced to meet;
And they that survive might as well be dead,
For often their children cry for bread,
There are two old sots at Lee,
They are poor as poor can be,
And there they are and there they'll be,
Till death puts an end to their misery,
These two old sots at Lee.

Edward Howard.