MASTERTON BOROUGH LICENSING BENCH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4132, 7 June 1892, Page 3

MASTERTON BOROUGH LICENSING BENCH.

The Annyal Sitting.

Important Business.

The annual meeting of the Masterton Borough Licensing Bench was held in the R,M. Courthouse at noon to-day (Tuesday), there being present Commissioners 6. Heron (chairman), J. Hessey, T. E. Chamberlain, W. Perry and J. Williams, The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, POLICE REPORT,

The Police reported haying made the usual annual inspection of all hotels in the Masterton Borough, They were all in a good state of repair, having the necessary fire es. capes, and were well furnished and cleanly kept, There bad been no complaints by the public and no cauße lor complaint by the public, excepting against the Star Hotel, ot which Mr E. J, Searl was the licensee. This hotel had not been conducted in the manner provided for by the Act of 1881. This Act had been set at defiance by the licensee, whoioontinued to ignore all authority for good order and conduot in his hotel, and treated - supervision with contempt. In '"December of last year the transfer of this license from Mis Leonard to the present licensee was strenuously opposed by Sergeant Hannan, then in charge of the station. The house had since been shown in the E.M. Court to be a paining house, contrary to seetion 149 ol the Licensing Act, 1881.

Tho police had also been refused adadmission. As regards ex* tending the hour for- closing from ten to eleven p.m., it was stated that there were no arrivals or de- . partures of any publio conveyance to or from the town after the arrival of the 7,45 p.m. train from Wellington, and as the present hour for closing allowed sixteen out of every twentyfour hours for hotels to keep open, a good reason for tho extension should be assigned. Provision for travellers arriving at any hour of the night or at any prohibited time was clearly and amply provided foi by the Act. PETITIONS. W" Petitions against the extension of . the hours of drinking to hotels, containing nearly four hundred signatures, and against the granting of the license to the Star Hotel, were pre* sented, RENEWALS Of LICENSES. The application of Thomas Charles fiayner for a license for the Royal Hotel was granted, there being no objection on the part of the police, The hour for closing was fixed at ten o'clock. Ten o'clo ok lice n sea were al bo gran ted to Agnes Thompson, for the Prince of Wales Hotel; Arthur A. Elkins, for the Club Hotel; Tlios. D. Thompson, for the Empire Hotel | and Henry Phillips, for the Occidental Hotel,

WHOLESALE LICENSE. A wholesale license was granted to Mr M. Casolberg on behalf of the Wairarapa Farmers' Co' Operative Association. THE STAR HOTEL. The application of E. J. Searl for an eleven o'clock license for the jL Star Hotel was then considered. Mr Pownall appeared for the applicant, whilst Sergeant M'Ardle opposed the license on the grounds stated in liia report- ' Mr Pownall; sworn, proved flip application was in 'order,' Spr'neant il'Arcile said he would prove that the house was not properly conducted, and that it was extremely difficult to exeroiso a strip} supervision oyprjt. Mr Pownall said that the notice of opposition of Sergeant M'Ardle was not in order. Further, the petition lodged against the house could not be entertained, as it had not been lodged seven clear days before the sitting, He submitted that the two first grounds of opposition, those regarding the gambling and refusing to admit the police,, should not be entertained, as they had already been < fought out in the R.M. Court. Sergeant Jl|Ardle: But I intend prodiicing fresh evidence. 1 Mr'Ptfviiall; Thta'you should confine yourself 'to that. i$ 11 The Sergeant; { hold that .tjie I evidence adduced' in the B.M. Court j|r Pownall Maintained 'that' the applicant' should' not be' put to a pecoiijl trial for the same bjKncj. 1 'Bfaffljty' swgrii, stated thpit'jij} d'd npt [gojiie tp the po)]r[ witji a grudge apoinat ibe applipantr flp perply fished to dp jiis duty, He had pot, since his last appointment in Masterton, seen a worse conduoted house than the Star, The police were :; afraid to go into the hotel unless in a large .body,

for fear that their lives would) be made a misery to them. He had on the police reoords the name of a person who had given evidence in a recent police case in the fi.M, Court. On the night of the 19th May the police,who had visited the iter Hotel, had been hooted by the occupants. The police, for reasons wliioh the Sergeant stated, were afraid to visit the hotel. The Committee must know that it would be impossible for the police to carry out their duty under such circumstances. The Bench was at this stage adjourned till two