LEFT IN MID-AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 21, 25 July 1945, Page 9

LEFT IN MID-AIR

ASHBURTON'S FATE

LICENSING ANOMALY

P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, July 23. Proposals to enable Ashburton, a town with a population of more than 7000 in a "wet" district, to have hotels, no provision for local restoration polls having been made under the law since 1925, were submitted to the Royal Commission on Licensing today by the Ashburton Borough Council through its solicitor, Mr. L. A. Charles. "The result of the existing legislation has been that the Borough of Ashburton, and any other areas which between 1902 and the abolition of the Ashburton electoral district in 1927 were at any time in the Ashburton electoral district, are suspended in mid-air like Mahomet's coffin, no longer in a 'no-licence' area but not having licences nor any possibility of obtaining licences." The contention was made that the position which had arisen in Ashburton could not have been anticipated by the Legislature when the existing legislation was passed. The proposals were, in brief, that a poll should be held at the next General Election in the Ashburton borough to decide, on a bare majority, whether licences should be granted in the borough, and if not carried, the proposal should be repeated at subsequent licensing polls; that if it is carried, the licences granted should be in conformity with the general licensing law then existing, and not under any special form of licensing control; and that similar provision should be made for the parts of the Temuka licensing districts which lost their licences either when part of Ashburton or by being included in the Ashburton district later.

Mr. Charles recalled that Ashburton voted to go "dry" in 1902, and by subsequent alteration of boundaries Geraldine, which had lost six licences, was restored to a "wet" district, but there was no power to restore the lost licences. In 1927 the Ashburton electorate ceased to exist, part being joined with Ellesmere (a "wet" district) to make Mid-Canterbury, and the balance joined to Temuka (another "wet" district). Since 1925 no polls on the question of local restoration had been held at Ashburton.

PRESENT SALE OF LIQUOR,

Since Ashburton became "wet" numerous agencies had been opened for hotels and wine and spirit merchants, and the Ashburton Working Men's Club and the Mutual School of Arts had a monopoly of the bar sale of liquor. The agents occupied small shops in a low rental part of the town, and did not pay any licence fee to the Borough Council, or provide any accommodation for the travelling public. While it was not suggested that the present agents were not observing the law, in the past numerous convictions had been made against agents, as well as other persons, for sly grog-selling. The question whether hotels, if established in Ashburton, could sell liquor at the same price as the Ashburton Working Men's Club and the Mutual School of Arts, which had the authority to sell liquor given in its charter revived when Ashburton was placed in the "wet" district in 1927, was raised. Evidence was given that since 1929 the club had had a monopoly of the bar sale of liquor in Ashburton, and out of its profits had been able to rebuild its premises and reduce its price for liquors to probably the cheapest in New Zealand. Mr. Charles said that the prices were 3d for a medium beer, 6d for pints and handles, 4d for sherry, and 9d for substantial nips of spirits. The club's membership was limited to 1300, owing to space limitations, and many applicants were awaiting membership. The subscription was £1 a year, with free life membership after 10 years, and there was an additional subscription of 4s a year for those using the club's circulating library, which was probably one of the best in Ashburton.