WINE-SELLER’S LICENCE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27046, 22 May 1953, Page 12

WINE-SELLER’S LICENCE

COUNCIL’S POWER TO OBJECT Advice that a/county council had the right to object to the granting of a wine-seller’s licence in its district was received bv the Halswell County Council yesterday from the New Zeaand Counties’ Association, which had sought a legal opinion on the matter. When a wine-seller’s licence was granted in the Halswell county in darch, the council sought “the opportunity to express an opinion.” The chairman (Mr J. MacKenzie) said at yesterday’s meeting of the council that the council had never wished to object to the granting of a wine-seller’s licence, but it wanted to know what its rights were. The legal opinion obtained by the •Counties’ Association stated that the local authority concerned had the right to authorise any person to object on behalf of its ratepayers to the granting, renewal or removal of a licence in its district. Section 91 of the Licensing Act, 1908, set out the grounds of objection, which briefly were: (a) the character of the applicant; (b) the state of the premises; and (c) that the licence was not required in the neighbourhood, or that the premises were near a church, hospital, or school, or that the quiet of the place in which the premises were situated would be disturbed if a licence were granted. Section 66 (4) of the 1948 act gave a council the right to object to the granting of a wine-seller’s licence. Counsel did not therefore agree with the contention that legislation was necessary to give a local authority the right to object to the granting of such a licence, as in his opinion there was the same right of objection to a wine-seller’s licence as for licences referred to in the Licensing Act, 1908.