Manamatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1893. A Shillings-worth.

Manawatu Herald, 15 June 1893, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1893. A Shillings-worth.

It appears hard that any person interested in matters brought before the Foxton Licensing Committee, after spending the beet parfc of: the day in attendance, should be placed in a position of being unable to | obtain the reasons guiding the Committee in their decisions, without having to part with one colonial 1 Robert ' for the information. Yet so it is. We gave, in the exact words the Chairman used, the real decision of the Committee in Spelman's application, so far as it oould be taken in law, and that was " the Committee after due consideration decided to decline granting the license." We have quoted • the authority for stating that the reasons for refusal must be given at' the time, which was not done, and it was natural to suppose the reasons ' were not those which the Committee desired to make public. As some of thß Committee have loudly proclaimed that they did have good reasons for the step they took, and had recorded the same very carefully in their minute book, we went to the book, at a cost of one shilliug, which the Act has laid down as a reasonable price for gratifying curiosity on licensing affairs* and can recommend the outlay to our readers as being money weli spenij ; ior. an insight into the remarkable , manner some of our public men conduct their public duty. It will be remembered that the Chairman of the Committee resented Mr Jellicoe being ; funny,- assertibg'tbat : ; if <Mr Jellicoe was funny he could be funny also and as a man of his word has acted accordingly. The Ace un«, fortunately sets out' that the Chairman shall be the only spokesman, a trying position to the other members, as instanced in Mr Startup's historic cal shaking of his head which: caused Mr Jellicoe to get at him by, admitting that probably Mr Startup knew , more about the affairs- of Whyte's estate than he did, a sly reference to the peculiar position he held upon the Committee. The Chairman, has therefore ,the^gra.ve. responsibility of making known to. the public the result of the deliberations of the .five men who retired, for a time, from the public! f gaze when the case under consideration was concluded. Had it not been for this minute book and. for the wonderful knowledge of the probable vagaries of Licensing Gommiitees,

as shown by the framers of the Act stipulating that the public, at a charge of one shilling, should glean a good deal of the hidden mysteries of these Wonderful bodies Who believe so much in their powers of "discretion" wa might have concluded that the chief wrong-doing of Jh? Cpnimittee consisted inmnissions rather thau in commissions. The book upsets this however. We con* teiid that the only decision aeoeptab.c is that.given by the chairman on returning to the Court, and whatever 'reasons ' the Committee may. choose to vecord in a book in a private room and kept only for inspection at a charge .of a shilling a head, is as nothing.- However as the Committee appear to think they acted very cleverly we will give the extract from their book. One member of the Committee appears to have opened the proceedings by recording the names of those present and adding " sitting in committee," the Chairman's bold hand then takes up the writing, so as to avoid any unfortunate mishaps, and writes as follows v after : due consideration it was resolved that the application (referring to Spelman's) be refused on the grounds that it is not required in the neighbourhood and the position being so close to the public school is decidedly objectionable." Then the chairman found that the resolution was not resolved upon, as the discussion was not unanimous. He called for a vote and has recorded the Ayes as F. E. Jenks, the Noes as tho rest of the Committee. Of course .we were not present, no one but, the members, of the, Committee were, so that whether they were standing on their heads or not, is not recorded in the minutes so no one can say, but taking the practice of public bodies generally, and the Borough Council specially, as the Chairman is a member of that body, the universal way of putting a resolution is to put to the affirmative first and the negative afterwards. Thus at every public body the question is put thus " Those in favour of the resolution being carried will please to signify the same by saying Aye, on the contrary N. 0." If- there is a division the question is put in the same way and the names taken down. Thus, at the outlay ot one shilling, we find that the chairman has 'been so exceedingly funny as to record in open court, as t a fact, a decision directly contrary to that which is recorded as the result of the Committee's private deliberations, and exactly contrary to the way he himself voted ! It will be noticed that resolution is worded to .read "that the application be v refused " yet there was only one " Aye " and four " noes "so that the resolution was lost. We wonder "Which it was the Committee intended to do, to grant or refuse the license, as by word of mouth, in Court the Chairman said it was refused, and in private the voting was against the license being refused. We ask again is it right, is it wis6, that matters of so much moment to both private persons and the public generally should be intrusted .to men who cannot even conduct ' the simple, matter of a record of their proceedings in an intelligible manfier?