Wet District Will Remain Wet

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 53, 25 May 1927, Page 8

Wet District Will Remain Wet

ELECTORAL CHANGES NEXT POLL TO DECIDE (From Our Resident Reporter.} WELLINGTON, Tuesday.' VS7ITH the alteration of electoral boundaries, one of the first questions asked was, “What about licences in the districts now classed as dry areas?” It is anticipated that the cominis* sioners will have something to say in their general report upon this question. The subject is covered, however, by the legislation or 1910 and later by an amendment to the Licensing Act, 1914. In the 1910 Act it was provided that in cases where boundaries of licensing districts are changed the licensing conditions existing at the time of the alteration shall remain as if the boundaries were unchanged till the next licensing poll. In the case of a prohibtion district, if when the first licensing poll is to be taken licence are prohibited over an area containing more than half of the population, the poll is to be taken under the local-restoration clauses of the Act, as if the whole of the new district were prohibited. If the area prohibited does not embrace more than half the population, however, the first licensing poll is to be taken as if the whole district were not prohibited. If the electors vote dry under the localrestoration clause, all licences within the area shall be forfeited at the end of the following June.

The position is covered more ally in the amending Act of 1914, which stipulates that wherever the representation commissioners divide New Zealand into electoral districts they shall, wherever practicable, eliminate licensed premises from a no-licence district. Where this is not practicable, they are expected to mention this in their report and the reason for the recommendation.