THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1902. UNDER NO-LICENSE.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 291, 4 December 1902, Page 3

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1902. UNDER NO-LICENSE.

With so many districts soon to be under No-License, a good deal of interest is being evinced in the future position of those electorates in regard to the breweries, clubs, and as to the importation of intoxicating liquors. Therefore we quote the sections of the Licensing Acts dealing with these particular points. Where No-License is carried, no license shall be granted to aid, solicit, or to receive any order, to sell or keep for sale or expose any liquor, to send from within or without or deliver to any person residing therein or any place therein any liquor which there is reason to suppose will be sold, or to send any parcel containing liquor without a proper label. The foregoing does not apply to clubs unless they aie on premises from which the license is being taken. Clubs may receive a charter at the discretion of the Colonial Secretary. The section quoted, therefore, allows breweries to v'ork in a prohibition area, but all the beer manufactured must be sent outside the limits of the district, even if it is simply readdressed and delivered inside the area with its contents duly announced on the label. J bus, beyond a little extra railage, there would be no restriction on the brewery’s output, and outside firms have liberty to send in as much as is required, provided that it is for the purchaser’s use and not for sale It is also provided that in districts where No-License has been carried no railway refreshment room shall be granted a license to sell liquor. In regard to the proceedings pending for to upset several votes on the ground of irregularities in compiling the roll, appointment of scrutineers, etc., it is unlikely that there will be any alteration unless some graver charge is made and sustained. The Electoral Act of 1902 gives the procedure to be followed, and then (sec. 167), distinctly states that despite slight irregularities, no election shall be declared invalid, provided that the election was conducted in accordance with the provisions laid down in the Electoral Act, and that any failure, non-compliance or mistake does not affect the result of the

election. However, provision is made in the Licensing Committees and Polls Act, 1902, that after three days’ public notice of the result of an election, any elector, within three days, and on lodging £2O, may demand and obtain a recount of the votes in all or any of the booths in the electorate. The magistrate shall then hold an enquiry and shall compel the Returni»g Officer to declare the result in accordance with the finding and also determine who shall be liable to pay the costs of the enquiry. It therefore follows (and has of couxse been already proved) that the result of an election may be altered because of mistakes in the first count. Whether the law holds provisions which will enable a poll to be declared invalid is a subject for the consideration of legal minds. Even if such is the case, it is quite evident that injustice a fresh poll must be taken. The wishes of more than three-fifths of the people cannot lightly be disregarded.