APPEAL ALLOWED

Hokitika Guardian, 6 May 1932, Page 6

APPEAL ALLOWED

ASHBURTON CLUB CASE

CONVICTION ‘QUASHED

tßy Telegraph—Per Pres A sß,H;iatK ’ r f

CHRISTCHURCH, May 6

The Appeal Court gave judgment in the Ashburton Club case, Loftus v. Martin.

The Judges were of the unanimous opinion that the appeal should be allowed, and the conviction of appellant, who was secretary of the Club, puashed. No costs were allowed.

In the course of his judgment, the ■Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, said that the question at issue depended entirely upon Section 263 of the Licensing Act, and was a question of fact rathen-than-ofnlaw.. Since,.the electipn of 1928 there had been no Ashburton licensing district. *That district went entirely- out of existence. Ashburton was now in Mid-Canterbury licensing district and that being so, it seemed to him that the conditions which made the charter inoperative, in so far as regards the right to sell liquor, no longer existed. The right to sell liquor was suspended during the period when th > Club was situated in the nolicensing district, but since the election of 1928, the Club had been situated in a district in which licenses existed. Th©, suspension came to an end as soon as the situation of the Club changed from a no-licensing district, to a wet district.