MOTOR SERVICE LICENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21277, 2 September 1932, Page 7

MOTOR SERVICE LICENCE

CANCELLATION REVOKED DECISION AT GISBORNE [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] GISBORNE, Thursday The licence of Whitfield's Motor Sei vice Company, running between Gisborne and Napier, was recently, cancelled by the Licensing Authority on the ground that' the applicant had failed to run to the time-table prescribed by the licence, the applicant having refused to rnn cars when no passengers offered. Only four days notice of intention of cancellation was given Whitfield and an adjournment was refused. The applicant then appealed to the Supreme Court for writs certiorari and prohibition against the authority s decision.

In a judgment delivered yesterday cancellation of the licence was revoked and the applicant was granted permission to give evidence at any further hearing when the question of cancellation of the licence should be brought up again. In the course of his judgment Mr. Justice Ostler said: "An affidavit on behalf of the plaintiff company had been given showing that Ivan B. Logan (who is a; brother of Frank B. Logan, chainnan; of the authority) is a co-trustee in the estate of F. C. Stafford as the registered owner of 2150 shares in the Hawke's Bay Motor Company (a rival company on the run); that M. G. Chambers' father is the registered owner of 395 shares and his late uncle, Bernard Chambers, was the owner of 700 ■shares in the same company. On the -facts, it was argued that F. B. Logan and M. G. Chambers were interested parties in the proceedings, or so interested as to create the probability of bias on. their part. _ > "With regard to Logan, who is a farmer and who lias no interest in his brother's business, the suggestion of interest is ridU culous. As 'to Chambers, if he has acquired any shares under his late uncle'i_ will, then he ought not to sit on the inquiry. If not, the fact that a few shares in the rival company are owned by the father and uncle's estate is, in my altogether too remote an interest to creata any possibility of bias."