THE NEWTOWN HOTELS

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1036, 31 October 1903, Page 1

THE NEWTOWN HOTELS

Monday evening’s Post has the following regarding the Hotels in the Newtown licensing district More unlooked-for developments of the voided poll at Newtown are likely. If prohibition is carriod straight out, thon the leases between the hotel owners and tenant licensees are terrainable according to an express provision cf the licensing Jaw. Section 83 of tho Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act, 1895, provides that in the event of licensed premises “being closed *as the result of a poll of tho electors in the district, or Jbeing closod by the licensing committee for a cause not arising from any act or default of tho lessee,” then the lessee may, by notice, terminate the lease in 14 days. It is now urged that as no valid poll was held at Newtown, and as the Licensing Committee declared that it hod no jurisdiction to grant licenses, the Newtown licenses have not been “ closed as the result of a poll, nor have they been " closod by the Licensing Committee, etc., (closed by ” implying an act of the Licensing Committee), as the committee did not act, but simply denied having power to act. If, then, the leases between owner and tenant licensee cannot bo determined, someone has to be liable to pay the rent til! the lease expires by effluxion of time. Now theso leases have, perhaps, passed by transfer from the original lessee through half-a-dozen others to the last or present lessee. Who is liable ? Is it the first lessee or the last ? Or are they all liable, and may the owner pick the best mark to proceed against ? And in that case has every lessee got recourse against every other lessee, and who in the end has got to go to the wall ? The whole of the legal ground covered above is doubtful and debatable, but these are some of the questions just now occupying the mind of the licensed victualler.