OHINEMURI LICENSES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1926, Page 23

OHINEMURI LICENSES

INJUNCTION SET ASIDE

COMMITTEEMEN CHALLENGED.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, 2nd July.

An injunction prohibiting; the Ohinemuri Licensing Committee from granting licenses to the Paeroa Hotel at Paeroa,' the Kerepeehi Hotel at Kerepeehi, and the Golden Cross Hotel at Waihi was set aside by Mr. Justice Stringer at the Supreme Court to-day after a hearing occupying most of the day.

The action arose out of the refusal of the committee to grant a license to Mary- Blaeldey Montgomery (Mr. H. O. Cooney)' for an hotel at Waitoa last Saturday. Mr. Cooney obtained a rule nisi to quash the refusal and an order prohibiting the committee from granting licenses to three other hotels. Mr. *Cooney had applied to the committee for an adjournment of his application, and a statement in writing of the committee 's grounds of the refusal, both of .which were refused. He then stated his objection to the personnel of the committee, mentioning particularly William i Marshall, William John Towers, and Francis William Walters, members of the committee, on the grounds that Marshall and Towers were working on renovations to hotels in Paoroa and were not fit persons to sit in judgment on- his application, and that Walters had given a pledge against the granting of a license to Waitoa, and had I laken an active part in the preparation of a memorial to the committee against the granting of this license. As a consequence of this action- the committee was unable to grant licenses to the three hotels mentioned. At to-day's hearing a motion was filed on behalf of the defendants to have the prohibition set aside, and this was upheld by the Court. The committee meets again on Monday, and it will bo in a position to grant licenses to three houses, two of which are now ready to open for business. It was stated that further proceedings would be taken in connection with tho committee's refusal to grant the Waitoa license. . ■ ■