Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1874.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 322, 17 January 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1874.

"MEASURES, NOT MEN." A difficulty has arisen in connection with the new Licensing Act, which has given rise to an exercise of prerogative on the part of the Superintendent and his advisers which demands some scrutiny. It is enacted in the new Act that no person, unless he shall be duly licensed under the Act, shall sell any alcoholic liquors ; and t.hft AH-. <W« nof> come into force before the 'month of July Ist, 3874. Moreover, it is required by it that Licensing ] ioards be established for particular districts, and these are to carry out the provisions of the Act, beaiing as it does certain restrictions on the traffic ; but as yet no Licensing Boards have been proclaimed by the Governor, so that no licenses under the New Act can be granted. It is quite true that the old method might be carried out until the new .had taken effect. But some of the magistrates, doubtful of their powers, had refused to act, which created a difficulty for those already in the trade and others who wished to enter upon it. In this dilemma, application has been made to the Superintendent of Otago, who has exercised a discretionary power, if you chose to call it so ; or, as we should say, has over-ridden existing arrangements, and too hastily taken the matter'into his own hands. We are aware that the Constitution Act gives the Superintendent a certain discretionary "power in administering the affairs of the rising communities, and where the appliances of Government, through its constitutional channels, are incomplete, i we would not hastily censure the use of such discretion ; but as in Otago we -are tolerably advanced in that direction, we have sufficient reverence for the law and sufficient regard for the liberty of the subject to condemn, what appears to us a hasty and indiscriminate uae of that discretion. This, step ought noj to have been resorted to on the part of the Superintendent unless all other means of meeting the difficulty had been, exhausted. We might as well have no law at all as to have tlieir provisions so ligHfcly 'treated. We apprehend, that these licenses have been granted by the Superintendent and his advisers before submitting tb.e matter to the Attorney-General ; and if ao, what is the use o£ an Attorney-General! at all ? We say so because the Attorney-General has forwarded a memorandum, which clearly shows tike action of the Superintendent to have been uncalled for, and if so, illegal. The memorandum is as follows:—"Prior, to July Ist, 1874, any license under a Provincial Act that may expire before $ie 30th June, 1,873, ' may be renewed under the Provincial Ordinance. Such, renewals, however, will only be made on the understanding that the licenses must, at the proper time, in March nej-t, take the necessary steps to obtain licenses under the said Act. Upon this understanding, it is provided that a proportionate deduction from the fee forthe new license will bfe made for the unexpired term of any license issued under a Provincial Ordinance in existing circumstances.*' It would appear from the above that the old plan may in the meantime be pursued, and we therefore feel warranted in considering the action of his Honor as both hasty and unconstitutional?