More About Licensing Committees.

Manawatu Herald, 23 June 1892, Page 3

More About Licensing Committees.

A public meeting was held lately in Palmerston to discuss the action of the Licensing Committee of that town, in not granting any new j licenses. Mr Linton moved. That clause 11 of the Act should be amended sd as to prevent any person interested in any building, or has any family interest direct or indirect in such building, being elected. To show the peculiar ideas that exists as to the action that these elected Committees should take, Mr Linton asserted that any man who came to ■the town and put money into build ings had a right to get a licenso. He instanced that last year four had been refused, and this year, gix, which meant a loss of £600, and he to know what right had the Committee to do that ? Mr D. Sinclair »econded the motion which wai carried by 68 tc 2. MrE. H. Littlejohn moved, That the Licensing Committee had forfeited the confidence of the ratepayers, as they had not increased the number of licenses. He said that it appeared to him a terrible thing for a man to come into a place and expend a lot of money and not g«t a license. Mr Chitham seconded the reaolution, which was carried by 61 to 22. Mr Colville said the Committee were elected on the ticket that they should grant licenses to any man capable of conducting a house, and he moved that the Committee ought to resign, and this was seconded by Moran and carried by 51 to 9. From the proceedings of the meeting it is evidently the opinion ot the meeting that a Committee, if elected as one in favour of an imcrease of licenses, should grant one to every person who applied, and their duty was simply this, and nothing more. . What an honourable position for intelligent men to occupy if this view is to be upheld. That a large number of respectible people really think with the promoters of the meeting emphasises the necessity for an alteration in the administration of the Act.