PROPOSED TANEATUA HOTEL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4899, 19 June 1918, Page 6

PROPOSED TANEATUA HOTEL.

PROTEST BY N.Z. ALLIANCE. 'Press Association Teleeram ) Tl, at WELLINGTON, June 18. +1 lf'fY Zealand Alliance passed the following resolution :-~“The New Dhatie ld ur A ? a + Ce en - ters its most emphatic piotest against the action of a majority of the Bay of Plenty Licensing Comimttee, in accepting an application for a new license at Taneatua when it has already granted the full number of licenses allowed by the law in the district. In adjourning its decision for a month the Committee was fully aware that the new license couM only be granted if another license were allowed to lapse through deliberate failure to pay the f? e ‘ ,M. raTl t} n £ a new license, jirobabiy 100 miles distant from the premises for which the license had lapsed would be in direct contravention of the spirit, if not, indeed, of the letter of Section 127 (4) of the Licensing Act, 1908, which reads: ‘No publican’s license or accommodation license shall be removed from the premises in respect to which it was granted to any other premises beyoud the boundary of the borough- (if undivided) or of the ward (if divided ! into wards) or of the riding or conn- j ty as the case may he within which ! the first-mentioned premises are situ- ! ated; nor shall it be removed to any premises situated more than half a mile from the first-mentioned premises if such premises are in a borough or one mile if in a county. The Allianco would further point out that the premises for which the new license is sought are in close proximity to a public school and a ,- e within four miles of the old confiscation boundary and of the Urewera Country, which is almost entirely populated by Maoris. The Alliance requests the Minister for Justice to consult the Crown Law Department immediately as to the legality of the Committee’s procedure. It urges that every legal means shall be adopted to prevent so flagrant a breach of the spirit of the licensing law and it appeals to the Government to spare no power it possesses for the protection of both natives and the Europeans against this evil, which may otherwise be tlirust upon them.”