KING COUNTRY LICENSES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 128, 28 June 1909, Page 2

KING COUNTRY LICENSES

GOVERNMENT TAKING ACTION. DECISION TO BE TESTED IN THE SUPREMH COURT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Ciiristcliurch, Last Night.

Dr. Findlay arrived in town this morning for the purpose of transacting departmental business, and returned to Wellington to-night. With regard to the granting of wholesale liquor licenses in the King Country, the Minister said that a great deal of indignation hail been expressed in the North Island with reference to the matter. The decision seemed to have been arrived at by one vote on the Licensing Committee, and apparently it contravened the whole spirit of the regulatiqns applicable to wholesale licenses in that part ( of the Dominion, and it was' regarded by the befit friends of the Maori race as a serious menace to their well-being and progress. Apart from that, if the grant were illegal, is should be quashed. As Attorney-General, therefore, he had given instructions to the Crown Law Office to take proceedings to have the granting of the licenses tested, by certiorari, in the Supreme Court. If upon full consideration it were found that the grant was' not strictly within the powers of the committee, the necessary steps would be take to quash the licenses.