Mr Goulding Discusses Future Of Commission

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28981, 24 August 1959, Page 10

Mr Goulding Discusses Future Of Commission

(Aew Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 23.

“Although I had known for some time that I would not be continuing, it was only late on Friday afternoon that I was informed of Judge Archer’s appointment,” said Mr A. M. Goulding, the retiring chairman of the Licensing Control Commission when he was asked in Wellington today to comment on his retirement.

The Minister of Justice (Mr Mason) was informed in December last year, Mr Goulding said, that “I did not desire reappointment for a third term, but that in the changed and difficult conditions then and still prevailing, I considered it desirable that I should remain in office this year.”

Mr Goulding said he was somewhat surprised that the Minister should appoint his successor to take office at “such short notice” because the Auckland review of the distribution of licences, and other important matters of which the Minister has had notice for many weeks, had been advertised to begin on September 7.

“Notification of this sitting has been given to hundreds of interested people and it would have been finished in a few weeks,” he said. This review, an important one, appeared to have aroused in certain quarters, unusual interest and opposition not hitherto experienced by the com-

mission. “As the review is in accordance with statutory requirements and a policy plan of the commission of which I have been chairman for 10 years, I think this action of the Government at this moment is to be regretted. It could so easily have been avoided. Public’s “Watchdog" “I note that the Minister suggests that while experience had shown the value of such an institution as the commission, it might well be that a commission functioning on a part-time basis would now suffice to cope with the needs of the situation,” said Mr Goulding.

Mr Goulding said he did not agree with this view “though such a scheme may suit some people very well. No licensing control body should, as one newspaper put it, be ‘the watchdog of public interest’ and function satisfactorily on a part-time basis.

“The law should be amended not to curtail, but to extend, its powers,” Mr Goulding said. “What the public does not always appreciate is that most commissions set up by Parliament wax or wane in direct proportion to the powers vested in them by Parliament and the enthusiasm, or lack of it, which Parliament displays towards their work.”

It might be that the Licensing Control Commission was ushered in with a fanfare of Parliamentary trumpets, Mr Goulding said. “But almost immediately, the commission itself was impelled to seek additional powers if it was to function satisfactorily.”

“Those powers were not given to it. On the contrary, due to pressure by factional and sectional interests, the commission's powers have been reduced.

“If it is to become a parttime commission only, it may. in time, disappear. Then, and then only, I venture to say will it be brought home to the public too late just what has been thrown away. Improvements to Hotels "With much to do, much has been done. In a letter to me on Friday, the Minister said it is fair to say that when the commission came into office the standard of buildings, accommodation and services in the licensed trade were in consequence of a long period of neglect a discredit to. the country. "Millions of pounds have been spent on improvements, but mere improvement of buildings is only one of the commission’s aims and, I hope, attainments. “It has enlightened the public on many aspects of licensing.” said Mr Goulding. Every opportunity had always been afforded to all who might be interested to appear, and be heard at public sittings, and from such public sittings had come recommendations and decisions in the public interest.

“I comment here that the press has always reported the works and views of the commission with clarity and fairness and it has usually been impartial in condemnation or criticism,” said Mr Goulding. “It will be a change and a relief to turn to different and less frustrating legal work than that of the commission which I leave with the hope that, in the future, the ripples from a few stones cast by the commission in the stagnant waters of licensing may one ddy reach the shore, and that the public will, in time, benefit from many and muchneeded reforms in the licensing laws and licensing trade.”