ALLEGED LICENSING BREACH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 321, 22 February 1910, Page 7

ALLEGED LICENSING BREACH

THE BOOTH AT THE WAIT All A EACES. WAS IT LEGALLY LICENSED.' At the Magistrate Court yesterdav, before Mr. H. S. Fitzherbert.. S.M.. Thos. Henry Sims, licensee of the Tariki Hotel, in the Stratford licensing ■district, was charged on two counts--(1) of having sold liquor and (2) of having exposed liquo r for sale at the Lepperton racecourse on the occasion of the Waitara races o* December 2, 1909, this being a p. .ic at which his license did not permit him to sell liquor. Sergeant Haddrell prosecuted and Mr. K. Spence. of Stratford, defended. Defendant pleaded not guilty. Mr. Spence admitted that liquor had been sold and exposed for sale by defendant at the Waitara races oa December 2, 1909, that the racecourse was within the Taranaki licensing district, and that the conditional license obtained by defendant had not been obtained on a certificate from th-j Taranaki Licensing Committee, and that defendant had been told by members of the Taranaki Licensing Committee that they could not grant him a certificate for a conditional license, as they had a re-so-lution not to grant a conditional license to any licensee outside their own district.

Sergeant Haddrell. on the other -hand, stated that the.defendant had a conditional license issued by the Taranaki County Council on a certificate issiud by the Stratford Licensing Committee, >and that the booth had not been badly conducted.

Sergeant Haddrell pointed out that under section 4 of the Licensing Act a licensing committe, whenever that tern was used in the Act, meant the licensing committee of the licensing district in which the license was intended to take effect. Section 102 provided for the issue of conditonal licenses, without formal notice, by a local body on a certificate issued by the chairman and two members of a licensing committee. But by the interpretation clause, which he had previously quoted, this certificate could only be issued by the committee for the district in which the liquor was to be sold. Otherwise as many .persons as there were licensing committees in the Dominion might obtain certificates. The Stratford Committ3e, in short, had no jurisdiction in the Taranaki licensing district. In reply, Mr. Spence argued that the Court could not »o behind th? licensee and enquire into the circumstances >or conditions under which it was granted. There was a de facto license, issued by the proper authority, the Taranaki County Council, and the certificate on which it was issued could only be quasnod by certiorari proceedings in the Supreme Court. | Mr. Fitzherbert mentioned the decision of the case of Searl v. MeArdle. a rather similar case, decided by Ch'rf Justice iPrendergast in the Supreme Court in 1897. . Mr. Spence replied that although the case of Searl v. MeArdle appeared at first sight to be against him, there was a great difference between that case and the present one. In McArdle's case the license was issued on a certificate granted by two members of a' licensing committee, and not bv two members and a stipendiary magistrate, ass required by the Act. The license in the present case was granted by the t proper local authority on a certificate! granted by a properly constituted licensing authority exercising jurisd'ction. For the purposes of the case the. Stratford Licensing Committee must be I assumed to have erroneously licit! as a matter of law that it had power to grant licenses outside its own district, although as a matter of fact it had made a mistake in thinking that the racecourse in question was within its

own district. But whether th-.' Stratford Committee had made a mistake of law or of fact, the certificate was issued bv a oroperiv constituted authority. This Court had no power, argued Mr. Spence. to quash the certificate because it found that the Stratford Licensing Committee had made a mistake in law, for a licensing: committee, he contend 'J, was a judicial body, not a ministerial one. Counsel adduced authorities on the points he had raised. His Worship reserved his decision until next Monday.