THE LICENSING COMMITTEE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2005, 2 June 1885, Page 2

THE LICENSING COMMITTEE.

To THE EdITOU. Silt,—The ratepayers of Masterton received such a slap in the face yesterday (when, in spite of the great majority of them voting in favor of more hotel accommodation, their representatives on the Licensing Bench refused to grant a license to Mr Sullivan), that I hope they wont forget it in a hurry. I was always' under the impression that when individuals were elected as representatives of the people, they carried out the wishes of the majority, and did not allow thoir personal prejudices to influence them; but it appears that I am wrong, and that carrying out the wishes of the majority is only a secondary consideration. I wonder if there is any other place in the world, besides free and easy Masterton, where such a state of things wduld be tolerated, and also if the electors have considered the loss entailed by their representatives' arbitrary action. Let us see—first, there is a loss to the town of forty pounds a year, which may have been spent in metalling roads, etc.; secondly, there is a direct stoppage of the expenditure among the cabinetmakers, upholsterers, and furniture dealers of the town, of over twelve hundred pounds for furnishing the hotel, (and I do not ■ think I am wrong in saying that a lot of this money would have been very acceptable as wages this winter); thirdly, there is the loss to the storekeepers and tradesmen generally of the annual expenditure necessary to maintain an establishment of this kind. Now, what has the town to suffer all this loss for ? Why, just to please the whim of two or' three bigoted teetotal fanatics, and to ensure a monopoly of the best paying business in the place. The mischief is done now, but I hope it will be a salutary lesson for the ratepayers in the future, and tlmt at the next licensing election they will make up their minds to have representatives of their own, and not vote for either Good Templar or publican nominees, as it simply means monopoly, and being governed by the minority. Yours, etc., Ratepayer.