ANNUAL LICENSING MEETING.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1571, 28 April 1874, Page 198

ANNUAL LICENSING MEETING.

WAIPAWA DISTRICT. Commissioners : H. B. Sealy, Esq., R.M., (Chairman ; C. Nairn, Esq., J.P.; D. Gollan, Esq., J.P.: and Colonel Herrick, J.P. The Licensing Meeting was held in the Court-house on Friday, 24th April.. An extensively-signed memorial against the three houses in the township was presented to the Court. The following letter in support of the memorial (adopted at a regular meeting of the Progress Lodge of Good Templars held on the.22nd instant, and signed by R. Phillips, W.C.T., and J. Sowry, W.S. of the Lodge), was also presented to the Commissioners : " Gentlemen, —We, the members of the Progress Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars, being deeply anxious to put a stop to the public sale of intoxicating liquors, and finding it impossible to canvass the whole of the Waipawa district as proclaimed in the Gazette, would call your attention to the following facts. 1. That the Licensing Act provides that where practicable and convenient the Licensing districts shall be identical with existing Highway Districts, School Districts or Municipal Wards, and where such divisions are not practicable, they shall be so divided as to best ensure the carrying out of the purposes of the Act. 2. That the Waipawa Licensing district, containing as itdoes nearly one-half the Province, and including some twelveior fifteen Highway districts, has been so divided as to defeat the purposes and objects of the Licensing Act. 3. That acting in conformity with the spirit of the Act, we have caused the immediate vicinity of the township for a distance of three or four miles on either side to be canvassed, and have obtained the signatures of more than twothirds of the residents within that, distance, to a memorial requesting you to refuse certificates to the three applicants in the township of Waipawa. We would therefore pray you to take the said memorial into consideration ; and if satisfied that two-thirds of the residents in the district canvassed have signed that memorial,, to refuse certificates "to the persons therein objected to. We would further submit to you, that with the exception of those immediately interested in the sale of intoxicating liquors, almost every resident in Waipawa is a total abstainer from the use of such liquors, and it ia obviously unfair that we should have thrust upon us, such an amount of vice) immorality, obscenity and profanity, as are constantly drawn together by the licensed houses in our midst, demoralizing the young, and making the name of our township a byeword and a reproach.' 1 Messrs R. Phillips and T. Sowry appeared in support of the memorial and accompanying letter. The Chairman said in reference to the petition that it was quite in order for a Society such as the Good Templars to send in such a petition. Reference had been made in that petition to the size of the District. He himself was altogether responsible for that. The Government had requested him to recommend the divisions for the Province, and he had consulted with the Chairman of Petty Sessions, and the divisions adopted were such as were recommended by them. Had the licensing districts been as the Act provided identical with Highway distri'-ts, he would (as he read the Act) have been obliged to hold a Licensing Court for almost every house in the Province. He knew that ,the Act had been differently read in other Provinces, but that was hia view of it. He thought Good Templars and Eechabitcs had| no right to put a pressure on the rest of the inhabitants,

Of course if the whole of the district bad been canvassed, and two-thirds o.£"?he people had signed the memorial, tiny "would have been compelled to refuse tlio applications; and he thought that it would not have been a very difficult matter to •have canvassed the whole, even though the district did include half the Province. Mr Harding said, that if the Chairman were to attempt to canvass the district he would not find it so easy a matter as he appeared to think, so many people were not at home when called upon, and had to be followed to their work. Some houses had to visited inany times before all the occupants could be met with ; he himself had been seven hours one day in finding out five persons, and he was quite sure that their district could not be canvassed for £IOO. Ihe Chairman said they ought to make a specific charge against the publicans; if there was the amount of wickedness carried on that the petition described surely the case could be brought home to some of them. * Mr Harding said the houses were all three alike, and where three houses were so close together it would be hard to bring a case home to any one of them. If the Chairman had been in Waipawa on the 7th April he would have seen a state of things there that would have surprised him. People were constantly meeting their death through drunkenness there. He mentioned a case of a man in whom he was interested having died in that way, and he traced out that that man had been supplied with drink at three different places. The Chairman asked if he could prove that either publican sold him drink after he was drunk, to which he replied in the negative. Mr Phillips said it was not their place to do the work that the police were paid for doing. They only knew the effect of the houses; they were all alike bad, and if one had been worse than another they would have petitioned especially against that one; but they all supplied drink to drunken men, and they all sold drink on Sundays. As he said before it was not their duty to do the work of the police, but they would have to do it. The Chairman said that he found people had an objection to laying specific information against publicans. Here was a case in which three houses had be'.en petitioned against by two-thirds of the residents in the vicinity, and yet no regular information had been laid against either of them; he thought the Good Templars should appoint a committee for the purpose, and that would take the onus off any one man. Mr Harding said their Lodge was young yet, and their forces not properly organized ; but that they would give a better account of themselves, next year. The publicans' applications were then gone into, and those of Thomas Coivper, Waipawa; Thomas Parkin, Waipawa; James Bennett, Waipawa; W. Mullender, Patangata; and G. Lloyd, Waipukurau, were granted. Wm. Ingram, Hampden.—ln reference to this application, the Chairman read a letter from Mr E. A. Carlyon, stating that the house was badly conducted ; that the landlord was a confirmed drunkard, and had lately been suffering from delirium tremens ; that proper liquors were not kept on the place ; that there was only one bedroom in the house, that the house was open on Sundays, and at all hours; and that if any house in the Province more needed the strictures of Mr Fox's letter it must be bad indeed.—-Decision adjourned to 9th May. J. Pettit, Pouhawa ; J. Nicholson, KaiJcora; J. Fergusson, Seventy mile Bush. —Granted. F. Elmbranch, Seventy-mile Bush. — In reference to this application, the Chairman read Mr Fox's letter ; also a letter from the Superintendent, saying that a gentleman Mr Finlay, had called at his office to complain against the way in which this house was conducted. This description tallied with Mr Fox's, with the addition that the house was a common brothel. Sergeant Farmer reported that he had had many complaints against this house ; that last year the licence had been Suspended for a month, but no improvement had taken place. A letter was read from Mr Hamilton, stating that ho Was staying in Mr Elmbranch's new house, and was very comfortable ; that no doubt the old house had not been what it should have been ; but that it was small and inconvenient, and he thought if a license was granted for the new house it would be better conducted. The Court said they would not grant a license to Elmbranch, but they, would not absolutely refuse the application, if the licence could be transferred to a respectable person they would grant the application ; they were not sure whether this could be done under the new Act, and would wait until the point was decided in a similar case in Napier. A. WDonald, Manaivatu Gorge. —New licence granted. The Chairman said Mr M'Donald was a new hand ; he might be well able to conduct an hotel, but he was going into a dangerous trade, and the Court would caution him to be very careful. The Court then proceeded with the applications for wholesale licences. W. Rathlone, Waipawa; F. H. Drower, Waipuhurau.—Granted. T. Matthews, Ilamp-den.~-Application withdrawn.