LOCAL BODIES AND LICENSING FEES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6636, 23 February 1883, Page 5

LOCAL BODIES AND LICENSING FEES.

[i-'KOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Cahiiridue, Wednesday. Is your issue of Monday, Mr. T. Wells, Chairman of the town District Board, attacks the correctn'-s* of the paragraph in U aikato District News of previous Monday, iu re local bo lies aud licensing fees. Firstly, Mr. We Is impugns the statement "That the Act requires the publicans' fees to be paid to tbe local bo ly having jurisdiction throughout the district." Secondly, ho denies " -t'hat the fees must be paid as county rev.-nua," and thirdly "That tho question of who shall receive the fees has been d-tin it. ly settled.'' Fourthly, he complains '-That the insinuation that it is o .ly by stoppage from tliit revenue that the county can enforce payment fr'-m the Cambudge Town Rilling of its prop rtion of general [ county charges is on a p ir with the preceding statements." Mr. Wells goes on to say : " What induced him (your Cambridge correspondent) to publish Mich a string of misleading Statements, I am at a loss to conjecture." The in iucement ami justification was a letter received from Mr. Haselden, Under-Secretary of the Department of .J u.-tic-? at W. llmgton, re-.d at tile last meeting of the Waikato County Council. The facts of the case are th-se. and I sho.ihl have thought Mr. Wells could scarcely be ignorant of them : —By sub-section 1, of section ;>, Licensin" Act, 1661, Amendment Act, 1562, it is provided that tho local b; dy having jurisdiction thrmujliout any licensing district shall appoint the Returning Utiicer, &c. '1 he Co. k of tho Cambridge licensing district, in which there are two local bodie-, namely, the Waikato County Council and the Cambridge Town District Board, did not know to wlneii body to rend- r the ecitnieates to enable the Cambridge publicans to obtain -licenses. He applied to the Department of Justice, a-id the letter above referred to from I the Ui.der-Seeretarv was the resul'. 'ibis j letter plainly stated that the Waikato County Council having jurisdiction the j d.strict, and the- Cambridge 'J own District j Board having only jmrli'il jurisdiction, the j WaikatoCounty Council mint be look'd upon ' as tile local body o act. So much then lor 1 attacks 1 and 3of Mr. Wells. Novv for attack 1 No. 2. In consequence of the deci-i- nof the | Department <f Justice given in the Under- j Secretary's letter above referred to, when the I licenses for the ensuing year are about to be 1 issued, in .1 uno or .July next, tho committee I for the Cambridge licensing district will grant ; certificates to those whom they wish to ob- I tain a lie- use. The Clerk of 1 lie Licensing \ Committee will issue their certificates to the j publicans, and when these certificates are j presented to the Treasurer of the local b.idy | having jurisdiction throughout the district, i.e., the Waikato County Council, that functionary will the licenses on payment of thi license fees, and wily on such condition. Does Mr. Wells snppo-.e that thev '.'.ill be issued without payment as by "law provided? 'i'tiey will, tin l-efore, become county revenue to all intents and put poses, an 1 by ixiatiiig arrangements of the Council bo placed to the credit of the l idiots, aud after deb ts inaele, the balance l/iuii'J/t ntjl itrrrxxfi: Ui/ — be handed And now'to the " fourtl'iy" of Mr. Well*. The renvai k concerning the stoppage was fully justified by pas* events. At the last meeting but one of tbe aikato County G* uncil a lettei was read bv the Cl'ik, wheriu in his capacity as Tieasarer, hi had demanded a refund C.f some t'2!i, which had been paid to tho Cambridge Town Board on a motion by County Councillor Wells, such sum being since shewn to have been over and above what they were entitled to obtain, and even at the last meeting of the Waikato County Council no answer had been sent to tbat letter. One word more. Mr. Wells, in his letter, quotts many authorities to show* that your correspondent's statements are incorrect, but the authorities he quotes are obsolete. He cannot get behind the Amendment Act of ISS2, which wipes them all out. even the opinions of members quoted from Hansard a work which the Hon. Mr. Mantellin the "Lords,"tbe "Funny Man of ; the House," compared to the then con- : dition of the Parliament buildings, as buffering from the same disease—dry rot.