FROM "WET" TO "DRY."

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1919, Page 4

FROM "WET" TO "DRY."

UNUSUAL FATE OF A HOTEL ' QUESTION OF COMPENSATION. ,' By Wire—Own Correspondent. Wellington, Last Night. A petition relating to a hotel license lost owing to an alteration of e&ntortl boundaries was discussed by the House of Representatives this afternoon. The boundary commissioners in mating the last adjustment of boundaries transferred the township of Bteriot from a "wet" district to a "dry" one. The (effect of this change was to extinguish the license of'the Heriot Hotel •and the licensee had petitioned. Parliament for relief. A committee reported that it had no recommendation to make. Mr Scott (Otago Central) movedthat the report should be referred bade to the committee for further consideration. He argued that a grave injustice ira#' being done the licensee by the. extinction of his license without a vofefoffhe electors. Sir Joseph Ward said It had never appeared to him jußt that a hotel situ J ated in a district where the people had voted continuance should be closed by transfer to a dry district. There should bo some provision to meet'casestif the kind. The Prime Minister agreed with this view. Mr Malcolm (Clutha)' said there wai another side to the case. ■ Heriot had been' included in Clutha when prohibition was carried in that electorate irf 1894. The voting in Heriot on that occasion was no-license 68, continuance 1. Subsequently Heriot had been moved into a wet district by the electoral commissioners'and the license had been restored. The prohibitionists had believed this restoration to be illegal but they had not been in a position to contest the matter. This was one of the injustices that the prohibitionists had suffered without receiving much sytn■pathv from the House. The report was referred baclc to the committee on a division by 40 votes to 19.