TELEGRAMS. HOTEL LICENSE FEES PROPOSED INCREASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 8, 9 July 1912, Page 3

TELEGRAMS. HOTEL LICENSE FEES PROPOSED INCREASE.

[BY TELEGBAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] NEW PLYMOUTH, Thia Day. The New Plymouth Borough Council last night further considered the question of increasing hotel license fees. The proposal met with a good deal of opposition, one councillor saying it was an outrageous proposal. It was stated that tho matter was not within the province of borough councils. Councillor Clark, the prime mover, agreed that the question should be referred to the Municipal Conference, no amount to be named. The council, he added, should have a cut in with the huge unearned increment. He recalled how fifteen years ago twenty-two hotels were closed in Dunedin, £800 being thus lost to that city. Thi6 was a distinct injustice. It did not reduce drunkenness ; therefore, seeing that the same amount of liquor was sold in the other hotels doing increased business the remaining licenses should be increased to make up the deficiency. He pointed to the loss the Wellington City Council had sustained through the carrying of No-license at Newtown., The council rejected the motion, favouring an increase, provided it was accompanied by a Fair Rent Bill, and the abolition of tgoodwills, but resolved, instead, to bring the matter before the Municipal Conference for investigation.