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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Personal Volume

The "No-Licence" Vote

The "No-Licence" Vote

must be in a majority of three-fifths of the votes polled to carry "No-Licence" in any district. Under this restriction there is no chance of a vote for "No-Licence" ever being reversed, as the same provision is made for reversal to "Licence." The Temperance reform party are divided in their opinion as to the fairness of this provision. Some think that the "No-Licence" issue should be carried on a bare majority vote, and that there is no reason and great injustice in a different system being applied to the liquor question than to all other questions in a democratic country. There is a very strong movement to have the question settled by a bare majority, but whether that measure will be carried is doubtful. There is no doubt that justice demands the same treatment for this question as others, but expediency and the safety of a three-fifths majority makes it doubtful if the gain would be very great. There was a bare majority for "No-Licence" in fifty-three of the sixty-eight licensing districts at the last poll, but a three-fifths majority was only page 4 received in twelve districts, which are now under "No-Licence." This does not mean that all the people in these districts are total abstainers, but that no one is allowed to sell alcohol, and that all packages sent into the district for private consumption must be stamped and marked by the consignee. There are evasions of the law, but not to any great extent. Most of the evasions of the liquor laws take place in the districts and towns where the [unclear: bare] open. Hotel bars are all closed on Sundays, and most of them have to close at 10 P.M. on week days, though in some districts the closing hour is 11 P.M. On election days the bars are closed from 12 noon until 7 P.M. The "Reduction" vote ensures a reduction in the number of hotel bars in the districts where "No-Licence" has had a bare majority.

The New Zealand Alliance of Men and Women and the Women's Christian Temperance Union are very strong organisations, and have the help of non-abstainers who believe that the open-bar system is demoralising to the people, and especially to the young people. No respectable woman would be seen entering a public-house bar in New Zealand, nor is it allowable to Kell drink to young people under eighteen years of age.

The temperance sentiment is so strong and the practice of temperance so universal that one rarely sees any but non-alcoholic beverages at hotel or steamer tables.