APPEAL TO PRIVY COUNCIL.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19785, 25 November 1929, Page 5

APPEAL TO PRIVY COUNCIL.

ASHBURTON LICENSING ! CASES. OTHER DISTRICTS AFFECTED. The solicitors for the {ilaiutifT in the Ashburton licensing case have made application for leave to appeal to the Privy Council, against the recent decision of the Appeal Court of New Zealand. The Appeal Court recently upheld a decision of the Supreme Court that the application for a license in Ashburton be rejected. The case was heard in the Appeal Court on October 7th and Bth. Then plaintiff, Joseph Scales, of Ashburton, applied for a writ of certiorari against the Mid-Canterbury Licensing Committee removing plaintiff's application for the granting of a publican's license in respect of the Somerset Hotel from the Committee, and quashing its order refusing to hear the same, and alternatively for a writ of mandamus commanding the Committee to hear such application. Messrs A. F. Wright, \V. J. Sim, and V. S. Wilding appeared for plaintiff, and Messrs F. ('. Spratt (Wellington) and L. A. Charles (Ashburton) for defendants. The decision then was that the Licensing Committee had no jurisdiction to grant a license, and while admitting the injustice of the case added that legislation did not provide for the particular set of circumstances which had arisen from the alteration of the elec- | toral boundaries. j The decision is? nne which affects intriPr distrii-ts in both the North and South Islands.