CLUBS AND CHARTERS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12935, 15 October 1907, Page 3

CLUBS AND CHARTERS.

NO MORE TO BE GRANTED

STATEMENT BY THE COLONIAL

SECRETARY

(special to "the mass.'') WELLINGTON, October 14. The granting of club charters was tho subject on which a deputation from the New Zealand Alliance waited upon the Colonial Secretary (the Hon. Dr. Findlay) to-day. The Rev. J. Dawson, in stating the object of the deputation, said it was understood that an application for a charter was being made by the Cosmopolitan Club at Gisborne. Since the last local option poll was taken, he said, club charters had been granted at Feilding, Hastings, and Masterton, although the people at the local option poll had voted strongly in favour of No-licen.se, while at Gisborne also tho same state ot things prevailed. A member of tho Wellington Working Mens Club had informed him that since the lockers were introduced there, their Sunday drinking cost them 2s Cd. instead of. say, Is previously. The locker was supplied, and they were expected to pay. From what tho Alliance had learned of these clubs, it appeared that the whole tendency was in the direction cf drinking, and they thought there were already sufficient facilities fcr all these who wanted drink.

ALLEGED FAVOURITISM

The \\ev. F. W. Isitt said that when h-« wa3 in Gisbornc he found a feeling that the Government was showing favouritism to th* liquor sellers. The Police Inspector had laid informations against certain publicans for selling whisky in bottles which were wrongly branded, and at tho same time informations were laid against certain tradespeople for not having had their weights and measures stamped. A telegram came instructing- the police to withdraw the informations against the publicans, but not against the tradespeople, and that action was greatly resented. Dr. .Findlay: What date was thatP Air Dawson: I think it was about August last year. Dr. Findlay: I am sure it is new to the Cabinet. Mr Isitt said there was a strong feeling nt Gisborne that the publichouses of the district were practically a committee for the Government candidate. THE MINISTER'S REPLY. Dr. Findlay, in replying, asked the deputation to bear in mind that the present administration should be made responsible for its own conduct, and its own conduct only, and that it did not commence a very long time ago. With regard to the clubs referred to by Mr Dawson, the Government was met with this difficulty: In regard, to the Masterton club, there was a definite promise made to the members that if they built their clubhouse, a charter would be granted. That promise had been made by a responsible Minister. The same applied to Feilding and Hastings, and it also applied to the Cosmopolitan Club at Gisborne. whose application for a charter came in eighteen months ego. The Gisborne people were led to believe that if they erected a building costing £3000, a charter would follow in good time. Tho Government was confronted with the question whether, as a matter of common justice, that promise should not be made good. The matter came before the Cabinet on several occasions, and it perplexed them very seriously. If it had come before them as a matter of first impression, there would have been no question that the charter would have been .refused, and if similar circumstances arose in future these charters would 4)e.refuied--eyery one of them. (Hear,, hear.") Tho Cabinet had passed a resolution that no charter should bo granted in future, and by viitue of that resolution, he, two days ago, had promptly refused an application for a charter for a special artistic club in Wellington. Applications from other parte of the Dominion had also been declined. The Cabinet's perplexity, however, in regard to the special cases referred to lay in the fact that promises had been made, and while he did not wish to escape responsibility or cast any reflection upon Ministers, or a Ministry which took a different view, it was due to the present Government to impress upon the deputation the fact that their hands were tied, but for the future these charters would not be granted in any case at all where the public rote was c: pressed as it was at Gisborne. The rule that no further charters would be granted would he adhered to so long as the present Government remained in office. As to the remarks of Mr I.itt, the question of withdrawing informations in certain cases was entirely new to him, and, he was certain, to tlie Cabinet. It could not apply to tho urcsent Ministry, but it would lie investigated, and if it wah found to be title, they would have some-thin-sr, to say to the officers As to club charters generally, he thought it wf.s en anomaly that where local option wos -=o widespread as it \iJB in Sew Zealand, the question .should not also ho voted on as to whether licenses should be granted to clubs. He spoke entirely fcr himself in this matter. He had not discussed it with any members of the Ministry. As to the locker system, he thought it was even worse th_n the system of crdimry licenses, bemuse it wa6 not subject to control, and he agreed that something should be done to check it, when the proper time came for doing 60.