WITHHOLDING OF LICENSES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 789, 9 October 1929, Page 7

WITHHOLDING OF LICENSES

test case against COMMITTEE argument for defence r css Association WELLINGTON', Today. The case for the defence was heard in the Court of Appeal yesterday, «hen Joseph Scales, lessee of the Somerset Hotel, Ashburton, appeared a-ainst the Mid-Canterbury Licensing Committee. Mr. Spratt, for defendant committee, made five submissions. He said that section CO of the Licensing Act being the sole statutory authority open to plaintiff was not designed to rover the case, and that it could have had no such application when first enacted. He also contended that subsequent statutory enactment did not affect its meaning or its operation in that connection. The second submission was that section 30 of the 1910 Act was prospective, and not retrospective, in its application. Consequently it could not apply to that case because the licences in question had ceased to exist before the passing of the Act. The third point was that the provisions of the Act of 1908 prohibited the granting of the application. The fourth point was that the fact of the annual meeting of the Ashburton Licensing Committee in 1909 was a bar to any application under section 30. The fifth submission was that to five to section 30 the effect contended bv the plaintiff would be to reverse by a mere supplementary provision ttie general policy of the licensing laws from ISSI onward. Mr. Spratt mentioned the essential features of the Licensing Act of 1902, stating that there was no provision for an increase in the number of licences after they had been reduced by a poll. If a reduction were carried first, and alter that no-licence, and then restoration were carried, the licences lost because of the reduction could not be reslored. In connection with his first submission, that section 30 of the 1910 Act was not designed to covet- such a case as the present one, Mr. Spratt claimed that there could not be such a thing as a licence in a state of suspended animation. What was granted in every case was a new licence to replace a licence which had ceased to exist. In conclusion. Mr. Spratt submitted that the present applications were contrary to the spirit of the Act, and that there should be no increase and no restoration of licences without a vole of the people. After counsel for plaintiff had replied. the court reserved decision.