ASHBURTON LICENSES

Hokitika Guardian, 6 November 1929, Page 4

ASHBURTON LICENSES

APPEAL COURT DECISION.

PLAINTIFF LOSES CASE.

(By Telegraph—Press Association)*

WELLINGTON, November 6.

In the appeal case of October 7th, Scales v. Young (Ashburton licensing case) four separate' judgments were read. The unanimous judgment of the Court was that- plaintiff’s motion must be dismissed, with costs fifty - guineas and disbursements.

The application was by Joseph Scales, hotelkeeper, of Ashburton, for a Writ oif Certiorari against H. A. Young, S.M., and other members of the Mid-Canterbury Licensing Committee, removing the plaintiff’s'application, for a license from the Somerset Hotel, Ashburton, from the Committee, and quashing its order refusing to hear the. same; also, alternatively, for a writ of; mandamus commanding the Committee* to hear such application.

The case arises out of the abolition of Ashburton Electoral District, which disappeared last year, and was attached to two adjacent electorates, Ashburton town became part of the MidCanterbury electorate. This is a licensing area. The Licensing Committee* functioned for the first time in June* of this year. Applications from the holders of licenses in the old -Ellesmere* district were granted. The present owners of four buildings in Ashburton, who lost their licenses when it went dry in 1903, have applied.

Their counsel contended that * - the Committee had the power to - grant, them, provided that application jwrts. made at the first annual meeting of the Licensing Committee, but the latter held that it had no jurisdiction. Four actions were accordingly brought, and the present one was treated as ai test case.’