SOUTH RAKAIA LICENSING COMMITTEE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1548, 5 June 1885, Page 2

SOUTH RAKAIA LICENSING COMMITTEE.

The annual masting of the South Rakaia Licensing Committee was hwM yesterday. Present Messrs Goeter, Allan, and Chamberlain. In the.absence of Mr Lyttelton, Mr Coster was voted to" the chair. The polios reported favorably upon the South Kale ala and Railway Hotels. The police’ objected to the re* newal of a licence to Mr Larsen for the Ohertsey Hotel, on the ground that the applicant had been convicted of drunken* ness while in charge of a hone, and that he was not a fit and proper person to son* ' duct a licensed house Renewals wen granted to the South Rakaia and Railway Hotels, the latter on condition that the > building now in coarse of erection should be finished and famished to the satisfaction of the police by the next quarterly 1 meeting of the Committee. The business ■ in the meantime to be conducted in a cottage adjoining the site, of the hotel. : In ■ reference to- the Ohertsey Hotel, Sergeant. Felton said Mr Larsen’s offence at Ashburton was a very n aggravated one, and he felt it bis doty to . bring it under the notice of the Oo,u* mittee. The house was clean and Well conducted.—Mr Caygill, who appeared -*■ for the applicant, said the charge his client was a very trifling affair. The. Act provided that a license could he with* m held from a drunkard, but Mr Larsen was certainly no drunkard. It had certainly J been shown that he had been drank on one occasion, but if the whole of the beta - in connection with that offence had been brought out it would have been seen that his client was more to be pitied than: blamed. Mr Caygill submitted a memorial from a large number Of residents living in the locality referring in the highest taima to the manner in which the house had been conducted. The Committee granted the renewal, but gave the applicant to'" understand that a repetition of his recent offence would seriously imperil the license of the house