[Footnote 1:  In 1884 the consumption of liquor among New Zealanders per head was—­beer, 8.769 gallons; wine, 0.272 gallons; spirits, 0.999 gallons.  The proportions had fallen in 1895 to 7.421 gallons of beer, 0.135 of wine, and 0.629 of spirits.]

The Prohibitionists are now disposed, it is believed, to make the fullest use in future of their right to vote for the reduction of the number of licensed houses.  They still, however, object to the presence of the Reduction clause in the Act, and unite with the publicans in the wish to restrict the alternatives at the Local Option polls to two—­total Prohibition and the maintenance of all existing licensed houses.  They have also decided to oppose having the Licensing Poll on General Election day.  Strongest of all is their objection to the three to two majority required to carry total and immediate Prohibition.  These form the line of cleavage between them and a great many who share their detestation of the abuses of the liquor traffic.

[Illustration]

Chapter XXII

EIGHT YEARS OF EXPERIMENT

  “For I remember stopping by the way
   To watch a potter thumping his wet clay.”

In 1890 a new force came into the political field—­organized labour.  The growth of the cities and of factories in them, the decline of the alluvial and more easily worked gold-fields, and the occupation of the more fertile and accessible lands, all gradually tended to reproduce in the new country old-world industrial conditions.  Even the sweating system could be found at work in holes and corners.  There need be no surprise, therefore, that the labour problem, when engaging so much of the attention of the civilized world, demanded notice even in New Zealand.  There was nothing novel there in the notion of extending the functions of the State in the hope of benefiting the community of the less fortunate classes of it.  Already in 1890, the State was the largest landowner and receiver of rents, and the largest employer of labour.  It owned nearly all the railways and all the telegraphs just as it now owns and manages the cheap, popular, and useful system of telephones.  It entirely controlled and supported the hospitals and lunatic asylums, which it managed humanely and well.  It also, by means of local boards and institutions, controlled the whole charitable aid of the country—­a system of outdoor relief in some respects open to criticism.  It was the largest trustee, managed the largest life insurance business, did nearly all the conveyancing, and educated more than nine-tenths of the children.