TANEATUA LICENSE

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 22, 25 July 1918, Page 7

TANEATUA LICENSE

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE V RESOLUTION

At the meeting of the-New. Zealand Alliance Executive held last evening the following motion was passed:

"That the attention of the Attorney,General be called to the fact that the Tarieatua .license was granted in spite of the strongest evidence against it, tendered! bj such unimpeachable and unbiassed witnesses as the following: The Public Works Engineer and the- assistant-engi-neer, who stated that the granting of a license would be highly detrimental to the railway workers, and the public : interest.-. Inspector Sheehan, Who predicted great trouble with the Uje'vera Na-> tives. and stated that it would be necessary to station an experiencei constable there if the lictnse' were granted. He expressed the opinion, that no committee was justified in granting the present application at the present timev Sergeant Ferguson and Constable Cummings, who strongly -opposed the application, and stated that they were unaware of any shortage of accommodation. Te Powhare, an influential Ruaboki Native, formerly chairman, and for seventeen years a member -of the Maori Native Council, who had been deputed by a general meeting of four tribes to opnose the granting of a license on their behalf. The Bishop of vVaiapu wrote protesting against the license on the ground that it would be. a grave, menace to fiic Urewera Natives. "That the only evidence submitted in favour of the application was tendered by the brother of the applicant, a garage proprietor, and an agent who collected signatures in favour of a license." 'That the Magistrate as chairman of the committee stated the following rea--sons for voting against the license :. "1. The evidence did not show that a license was required. "2. The evidence showed that a boardingho.use without a license was quite sufficient. "3. The menace to the Natives was real. His own experience showed the. terrible havoc wrought by liquor amongst the Maoris. "4. There were already too many facilities for Natives to get . liquor.' The proximity 'of Taneatua to the Urewera would make matters worse. "5. The universal tendency to-day was to restrict the consumption of liquor during the war; for example, 6 o'clock closing and anti-shouting.. To grant the application -.would traverse this principle. Moreover, it was obvious that the Artiamuri House did not pay, but the Taneatua license was being sought because of the. in- . creased consumption of liquor, it would pay. "6. In the face of the example of the world's leaders in abandoning consumption of liquor, he could not conscientiously support the granting of the-application.

"That 'on 13th June, when the application for the license was first. made, although no other license in tho district had then lapsed, the commitee granted an adjournment for the expressed aaid admitted purpose of dropping a,n unprofitable liceuse in a place about 100 miles away in order to get one at Taiveatua.

"That the alliance protects* a-gainstl this flagrant defiance of the clear inten* tion of tho Licensing Act and submits that in this case, •as also in that of the Ohiwi license, which was removed to Manutahi, on tho East Coast, a district largely populated by Nativ-es, there' is such clear evidence of strong bias, and even of collusion between several members of the committee and the liquor trade,-that a searching enquiry should be -made into the whole circumstances immediately.

"That a. copy of the above be sent to th<> Acting Plime Minister, the Attor-ney-General, tiie Minister for* Justice, ami the Honourable W. D. $. Mac Donald, member for "the electorate.