POWER OF LICENSING COMMITTEE DISPUTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 5

POWER OF LICENSING COMMITTEE DISPUTED

CONDUCT OF HOTEL (Special to THE SU.XJ NEW PLYMOUTH. Friday. An interesting point was raised at a meeting of the Waitomo Licensing Committee, before Mr. It. W. Tate, S.M., at Waitara to-day, when application was made by the police to determine the licence of Stephen Frederick Mockett, licensee of the Waitara Hotel, on the ground that the hotel had been improperly conducted. Mr. K. H. Quilliam. who appeared for the licensee, and also represented D. K. A. Leslie, the lessee, lodged an objection that it was not within the committee’s jurisdiction to hear the application. Inspector Fraser submitted that if the committee did not have the power to determine licences, a licensee could run a disorderly house for 12 months before his licence was cancelled. The inspector stated that Mockett had been convicted on three occasions within six months. A barman had also been convicted of supplying liquor after hours, and since December last ID persons had been convicted of being unlawfully on the premises. In 12 months Mockett had had four convictions, showing that he was not conducting his house in a proper manner, and that he should lose his licence. During that time. continued . the inspector, there had also been a fracas in the hotel, in which a man was badly injured with a razor. Another mat had so severely cut himself that he

I was in hospital for four months, and ! lost the use of one hand. | Evidence was given by a number of ' residents, including the Mayor, that j the accommodation of the house was above the average of similar districts, and that the hotel was considered to be reasonably well conducted. After consideration, the chairman announced that the piatter was considered very serious, but decision would be deferred until the next quarterly meeting.