THE POWERS OF LICENSING COMMITTEES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12301, 19 June 1903, Page 4

THE POWERS OF LICENSING COMMITTEES.

There has been a large amount of discussion on this subject of late in consequence of some remarks made by Mr. Carew, S.M., of Dunedin. He said: — Wo have no power to make it a condition of granting a renewal that the applicant shall servo liquor from only 0110 placo in the hotel, or shall'not employ barmaids, nor give counter lunches, and we have no right to require an applicant to give an assurance that ho. will- conduct • his business in any particular to conform with any of our personal views, "but not required by law, and we have no right to take any such assurance or absence of assurance into consideration when weighing as against each other which license is to he granted or refused. This statement was made because in various localities the members of licensing committees had met and had resolved that the renewal of licenses would be dependent upon the applicant agreeing to certain conditions. The duty of the licensing committee is-to administer the law, by which they are not authorised to make conditions. Whether it is intended by the Government to ask Parliament to give any such power to the new benches of magistrates remains to be seen, but, at all events, it is well that the law should be understood, and apparently Mr. Carew is right. As showing how certain members of licensing committees look upon their position, Ave may quote the following pronouncement made at a meeting of a licensing committee:—"Now, therefore, we, the elected members of the committee, put on record their resolve to maintain, • in the name of their fellow electors, the first right of a self-governing and free people to have effect given to their lawfullydeclared will—in the first place, by taking advantage of every clause and jot and tittle of the licensing law that can prevent the issue of licenses, and to resist, as far as they lawfully and' righteously can, to the uttermost limits of their personal endurance, the machinery of the law which the liquor-sellers, by the power of money, may put in operation against them." This is simply intemperate language, and must greatly injure the cause of licensing committees. As to the imposition of conditions, we . max remark that under the Licensing Act of 1881 more than one bar was- forbidden unless by consent of the committee. But the clause was not re-enacted by the Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act. A committee, therefore, which seeks to bind a publican to close a private bar" is going beyond what it has any authority to do. A license can only be refused under the circumstances stated in the Act, and must not be granted under conditions stipulated by the committee. This is indeed as it should be, for if the granting or refusal were left entirely to the members of the committee an opening would be left for corruption or undue influence. Besides, it is quite certain that the licenses in different localities would be granted under widely different conditions as the opposite sides obtained preponderance on the licensing committees.