ABOUT A LICENSE

Evening Post, Volume 148, Issue 148, 20 December 1923, Page 8

ABOUT A LICENSE

AN IMPORTANT POINT.

; (BI TIUOJUTH.—Mm iSIOCIAIIOK.) TAURANGA, This Day. • The echo of an important application before the Licensing Committee at Tauranga in 1920 for an accommodation license at Matamata, which the committee by a majority declined, was heard ayhe last meeting of the Licensing Committee, when one member reported that She Collector of Customs at Auckland ■had granted ja. license to the Paeroa Brewery Company to sell beer at a depot at Matamata~ in quantities of not less than two gallons. The position is that section 46- of the Finance Act, 1917, gives the; Collector of Customs this nower without reference to the Licensing Committee. On it becoming known that such.licehsehad:.been granted, certain Eartiejs:;prpteste'd; ,t6.:the Minister, who instructed the- Collector to cancel the license, l;Hek endeavoured to do' so, but iyas faced:..with.a.;Supreme Court action fry the-brewery company; and Mr. JusBee Stringer . .ruled. that, the Collec- : tor could.'grant-.a; license, but had no power -to revoke it. Judgment, therefore, was for the plaintiff company, with cbsts, ten guineas, and disbursements against the Collector. The position, therefore, is that what the Licensing Committee declined has been granted in part by the Collector of Customs without power of supervision or revocation and without the necessity of consulting the committee. °

•! The Licensing Committee passed a resolution that the granting of the license wa3 a reflection, on it, and that the Minister be asked to take steps to revoke the power given to Collectors to grant such licenses, which should rest onhr in the committee, and that it be given the power to cancel the license in question when deemed fit. •