BLENHEIM WEST LICENSING COMMITTEE.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 314, 6 June 1888, Page 3

BLENHEIM WEST LICENSING COMMITTEE.

The annual meeting of this Committee was held in the Court-house yesterday, when there was a full bench, viz,. Messrs B. H. Smale (chairman), li. Kilpatrick, M. ' Healey, R. C. Litchfield and C. Williams. THE CRITERION HOTEL. R. Andrews applied that the license for this hotel be transferred to T. Ryan.-—The Inspector (Sergt. Scanlan) said he had no objection to offer. He pointed out, however, that the building would not be finished for a month. The house would he a credit to the town and : he believed Mr Ryan would conduct jit in a satisfactory manner. The * Bench, however, should make the I granting of the transfer conditional I upon the licensee taking possession on tho Ist of nest month, and that the present temporary premises be closed up.—Granted. RENEWAL. Club Hotel. J. D. Brace applied for a renewal of the license of this house.—The police report was favorable, Sergt Scanlan re-1 marking that no house in the dis- $ trict possessed better facilities for escape in case of fire. Grosvenor Hotel. R. H. Pricldle’s application for a renewal was grunted, the police report being | favorable as to the conduct of the house. OPPOSED APPLICATION. Mrs Ann Murphy applied for a license for a house that she intended to erect on the site of the South Star Hotel, destroyed by fire, Maxwell Road. Applicant deposited plan of the building proposed to be erected. The usual householders’ certificate accompanied the application and a petition, signed by residents in the vicinity in favor of the license being granted was put in. A counter petition was also lodged. Mr Conolly appeared for applicant and Mr Rogers for objectors. The police report objected to the license being granted. Sergt Scanlan said ho objected to the license on the ground that the house was nob required and that if it were respectably conducted it would not pay. The people who lived in the neighborhood were not drinking people. The house would only be a resort for station hands, and it being in the suburbs, the small staff of police would he unable to exercise supervision over it. Mr Conolly said he had just been instructed to appear for the applicant. He pointed out that a petition had been lodged in favor of the license being granted signed by some of the principal men in the district, men of good standing, who were of opinion that the house would he . a benefit to the district. He admitted that the former house had a bad reputation and tlmt the license had been cancelled. But he submitted that that should have nothing to do with the present application. The applicant was the widow of the former owner of tho premises, and she, through the conduct of a former tenant, had been deprived of a living. Applicant was a respectable woman, and he could almost promise that the house would be well conducted by her. With regard to the objection raised by the police' that the house would not pay if respectably conducted, as far as he knew the only hotels that paid were those that were respectably conducted— , not those that kept a lot of drunken : brutes lying' about. He anticipated that the objection would he raised that the Bench had no power to grant a license, as there was no house on the ground. But he would ask the Bench to give an 1 expression of opinion that they ' would grant a license if the house ! were erected.

Mr Rogers said it was clear that the Bench had no power to grant a license, and lie quoted from a decision of the {Supreme Court in support of his statement. Before the Bench expressed an opinion on the subject, he presumed that they would like to hear the objectors. He could bring witnesses, but knowing that the Bench had no power to grant the license he did not call them. It was a pity that q, different site had not been selected for the house, as the proposed site was too near a public school and a church.

The Chairman said it -was not necessary to call witnesses. Mr Conolly asked the Bench to look carefully at the names appended to the petition in favor of tho license. He did not ask tho Bench to say that a license should be granted that day, but i£ they gave a favorable expression of opinion and adjourned for two months, the application would then bo in order. The Bench retired for a few minutes, and upon returning mo Chairman said they would bo guided, as they had been on previous occasions, by the police report, and as tho Inspector maintained tho house was not required, the application would be refused. As tho Bench had been asked for an expression of opinion, they would, in justice to propertyowners, do so, and that was that the house was not required, and consequently the application would not he entertained. WHOLESALE LICENSE. Messrs Charles Earp and Co.’s application for a wholosale license was granted.